Middle school and high school students are learning the basic research skills that will enable them to form and answer important questions about the world in which they live. I am interested in teaching students principles of scientific research through reading, observation, and experimentation that is focused specifically on local biology and ecology. While emphasizing these concrete research activities, I intend to introduce students to the role that scientific research plays in important government decisions.

My own doctoral research focuses on federal land policy, specifically on the Bureau of Land Management’s new responsibility for national monuments in the western United States. This research grows out of my education in environmental science and my seasonal work for the U.S. Forest Service, and it reflects my broader interests in public land and resource decisions and in environmental ethics. I would like to spend the fall helping students with small projects and games that emphasize their local environment, such as experiments that measure water flow through local soils or competitions in plant identification on the school campus. I would then like to assist them with larger research projects that are connected to local land and resource management, such as waste water treatment, wetlands protection, recycling, forest management, recreation management, etc. Working on research projects that expose them to the complexities of public land and resource management will teach them research skills and highlight the importance of their present and future civic engagement.