Community Engaged Conservation Research Design

Catalog description

This 3 credit course builds student capacity to conceptualize, design and articulate community engaged research projects. Along with research design, the course trains students to think and communicate across disciplines via readings, assignments and workshops. Over the course of the semester, students will develop research questions and methodological approaches to produce an ethical and compelling research proposal to investigate a problem, question, or need related to rainforest conservation. A key part of this process is co-design: students will work closely with one or more FCAT collaborators, as well as their Tulane faculty advisor and TIERA staff. The expectation is that students will go on to implement the research projects that they develop in the context of this course. In addition to project design, students will learn to provide feedback and constructive criticism to the work of their peers; develop an ability to appreciate and communicate across disciplines, and engage with critical perspectives on issues that arise in community engaged conservation. Students will also work as a group to develop an experiential education module that will be used in Ecuador (for the Nueva Generación Environmental Youth Club) and on the Tulane campus (for BaTS and GiST).