Ecology in Action

Fred D. Singer

Μαρ 2016 · Cambridge University Press

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Taking a fresh approach to integrating key concepts and research processes, this undergraduate textbook encourages students to develop an understanding of how ecologists raise and answer real-world questions. Four unique chapters describe the development and evolution of different research programs in each of ecology's core areas, showing students that research is undertaken by real people who are profoundly influenced by their social and political environments. Beginning with a case study to capture student interest, each chapter emphasizes the linkage between observations, ideas, questions, hypotheses, predictions, results, and conclusions. Discussion questions, integrated within the text, encourage active participation, and a range of end-of-chapter questions reinforce knowledge and encourage application of analytical and critical thinking skills to real ecological questions. Students are asked to analyze and interpret real data, with support from online tutorials demonstrating the R programming language for statistical analysis.

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Fred D. Singer is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Radford University, where he began teaching in 1989. A committed teacher, he developed research programs on the behavioral and community ecology of spiders, dragonflies and zebrafish, while also collaborating with several colleagues to promote active learning as part of an ongoing research program on new approaches to teaching. In 2000, in recognition of his dual research programs, he was awarded the Radford Foundation Award for Creative Scholarship. He has taught approximately 20 different courses, including general ecology, field ecology and climate change ecology, using the philosophy that the best learning occurs when students deal with real experiments and real data.