Bridging Environmental Science and Policy for Local Conservation Efforts

About 14 years ago, the open meadow in Commons Ford Ranch Metropolitan Park in West Austin had been overtaken by invasive plant species. A group of birders and ecology-minded volunteers initiated a restoration project that replaced invasive plants with native ones. Today, more than 100 species of grasses and wildflowers thrive in the 40-acre meadow, which draws a wide variety of birds. 

The volunteers monitored the plant and bird species in the initial years after the restoration, but since 2017, Associate Professor of Environmental Science Amy Concilio and her students have been conducting vegetation surveys at the park. More recently, Concilio has brought that research into her introductory environmental science course in a case study, an interactive exercise that challenges students to apply concepts from readings and lectures to an actual scenario. The teaching method helps students see how science intersects with political, economic and social issues in society.  

“It helps to take all the big picture concepts that we’re working with and apply them to real-world challenges,” she says.

Now, environmental science faculty at other universities can bring the exercise into their classrooms, too. In April, Concilio and two co-authors published “An Interrupted Case Study on Urban Prairie Restoration” in the peer-reviewed online journal CourseSource, which provides evidence-based teaching resources for science instructors. The paper emerged from work Concilio did with the Prairie Project, a Texas A&M University initiative to help secondary teachers and college professors incorporate more research on prairie and grassland ecosystems into their teaching. The paper explains, step by step, how professors can implement the active-learning technique for their students. 

In an “interrupted” case study, students learn information in increments and have a chance to reflect and develop hypotheses before the next part of the activity. “It’s a really great tool for getting them to put together the pieces, instead of giving them all the information at once,” Concilio says.

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In Concilio’s case study, students first learn basic information about Commons Ford. Drawing on their existing knowledge about habitat degradation and biodiversity, they generate hypotheses about why bird diversity was low before the restoration. They then discuss the challenges of restoring native prairies in urban areas, including the constraints on using fire through prescribed burns. 

Next, the students predict how plants and birds responded to the restoration. Working in groups, they draw graphs illustrating how they think the restoration affected four variables: bird abundance, bird species richness, plant species richness, and invasive species dominance. They then compare their hypotheses to the actual data Concilio’s team gathered and discuss other variables, such rainfall volume, that would have influenced the results. 

Finally, the students learn about the concept of ecosystem services: the free benefits humans derive from nature, such as air purification and water infiltration (for example, Concilio points out that the Blunn Creek Preserve adjacent to the St. Edward’s campus buffers it from air pollution from Interstate 35 and from flooding during heavy rainfall). The students brainstorm ecosystem services that a grassland could provide and predict how these services would be affected by restoration. They also reflect on the social benefits of ecological restoration. Acknowledging the reality of limited budgets and volunteer power for conservation projects, they weigh the merits of urban restorations like Commons Ford against investment in larger, contiguous plots of land farther from cities.

Through the case study, students learn about urban ecological restorations and ecosystems as well as the scientific process itself. They examine how the data Concilio’s team gathered can inform the decisions made by policymakers and those in conservation nonprofits.

A pre- and post-activity survey showed that the students grew significantly in their understanding of the ecological dynamics of prairie ecosystems and ecosystem services. Concilio also has plenty of anecdotal evidence from students who have told her they enjoyed the lesson. She says the non-science majors in her introductory course participate more in the case study than some other lessons because they can see how the restoration connects to their own fields: politics, economics, social work, education. 

“It’s a good case study for showing how conservation actually happens, on the ground,” Concilio says. “The natural sciences are part of it, but if you want to make conservation happen, you also need to learn how to get people interested and convince them to work with you. The non-science majors in the class can see that, ‘I have a role to play in conservation and environmental science, too.’”