Elizabethtown College joins colleges in founding ecological research network

National Science Foundation grant launches effort

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Assistant Professor of Biology David Bowne during an environmental studies class at Elizabethtown College's Lake Placida.

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (07/29/2010)(readMedia)-- Thanks to an almost $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, faculty at Elizabethtown College and other institutions are founding a network to enhance undergraduate ecological education through collaborative research.

The Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN) comprises faculty at a dozen colleges in the Northeast and Midwest who will partner in developing collaborative research projects focused on regional to continental-scale ecological issues. Through the projects, the faculty will engage their students in authentic science while teaching them basic ecology. Additionally, the EREN faculty will create a continental-scale ecology course module using research data and establish an online database of collaborative data sets collected during the project.

Assistant Professor of Biology David Bowne, who is one of 16 EREN faculty, believes this effort could be a catalyst for significant ecological research. "This network will allow faculty and students here at Elizabethtown and across the nation to work together to answer large-scale ecological questions that would be impossible for any one participant to answer alone," Bowne says. "Elizabethtown College students will actively conduct research that advances ecological science and, in the process, gain a deeper understanding of ecological concepts, experimental design, the process of science, and the value of collaboration."

The EREN is being led by Laurel Anderson, Ohio Wesleyan associate professor of botany-microbiology. In addition to Bowne and Anderson, the network includes faculty from Bard College, N.Y.; Carthage College, Wis.; Ferrum College, Va.; Meredith College, N.C.; Mount Holyoake College, Mass.; Mount St. Mary's University, Md.; Sewanee: The University of the South, Tenn.; St. Olaf College, Minn.; Swarthmore College, Pa.; and Union College, N.Y.

Elizabethtown College, in southeastern Pennsylvania, is a private coed college with degrees in liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education. The hallmarks of an Elizabethtown education are academic rigor, high expectations and intellectual curiosity. Our faculty members are teacher-scholars, pursuing their academic areas of expertise while sharing that expertise with students.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2010, its budget is about $6.9 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives over 45,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

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