{"id":4234,"date":"2023-01-30T11:02:51","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T16:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/munews.mansfield.edu\/?p=4234"},"modified":"2023-01-30T12:27:29","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T17:27:29","slug":"a-partnership-in-water-ecology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/munews.mansfield.edu\/?p=4234","title":{"rendered":"A Partnership in Water Ecology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Eric Foster<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a move\nthat wouldn\u2019t have been possible without integration, five Commonwealth\nUniversity faculty members, representing Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, and Mansfield\nare collaborating to create a Watershed Ecology Center. In addition to creating\na resource to help preserve Pennsylvania watersheds, this Center of Excellence expands\nstudents\u2019 research opportunities and career networks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout five\nyears ago, we were noticing a bit of burnout in the students who were not\ngetting to do what they wanted for careers related to water, water conservation\nand ecology in general,\u201d says Dr. Steven Seiler, professor of biology at Lock\nHaven. \u201cSo, we developed coursework and did a lot of small research projects\nwith freshmen and sophomores, that would continue until the time they\ngraduated, just to get them excited, engaged, and retained. We like to include students on our\nresearch projects with agencies and conservation groups like Trout Unlimited\nand the PA Fish and Boat Commission to build connections to future job\nopportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seiler\nwas joined in his efforts by Lock Haven biology colleagues Drs. Heather\nBechtold and Daniel Spooner. With the integration of Bloomsburg, Mansfield, and\nLock Haven as Commonwealth University, they were joined by Dr. Steven Rier,\nprofessor of biology at Bloomsburg, and Dr. Gregory Moyer, associate professor\nof biology at Mansfield. In addition to representing a variety of campuses, the\nfaculty bring a variety of specializations to the Center. Bechtold specializes\nin contaminants and algae, Rier specializes in algae and microbial ecology;\nSeiler is an expert on fish and invasive species; Moyer focuses on fish and conservation\ngenetics; and Spooner is an expert on freshwater mussels.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water\necology is particularly relevant to Pennsylvania. \u201cPennsylvania has the second\nhighest density of streams in the entire country next to Alaska,\u201d says Rier.\n\u201cAnd there\u2019s a range of conditions of the streams \u2014 from super pristine and\nrich to systems that have been seriously impacted. We\u2019ve got this natural\nlaboratory right here. We can not only do research and understand it better,\nbut we can also educate our students so they understand how ecosystems should\nwork and how humans have impacted them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea\nis to give students experience with hands-on skills so that they are easily\nemployed,\u201d says Dr. Bechtold. \u201cBefore they leave our campuses if they have\nexperience electroshocking or taking water samples, or if they know those sorts\nof methodologies, agencies are going to scoop them up real fast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce\nstudents have their own kind of projects and participate in these research\nactivities, there\u2019s more buy-in from the student in terms of their own\neducation,\u201d says Spooner. \u201cI have students who I\u2019ve done research with and now\nthey find really interesting articles and bring them to me. They own their own\nscience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\naddition to involving students in research on their home campuses, they also\nenvision having students work together across campuses, particularly during\nsummers. Dozens of students are involved in research courses and projects at\neach campus every semester. Faculty have begun interacting with students across\ncampuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSteve\nRier had me join a committee for one of his master\u2019s degree students,\u201d says\nBechtold. \u201cThat\u2019s an opportunity for me to help shape the student\u2019s project and\nget involved in the creeks and streams near Bloomsburg.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConnections\nand networking are an important part of getting a job,\u201d Bechtold added. \u201cWith\nour connections across the three institutions, we have a large network where we\ncan place students. We\u2019ve tripled the network of any given student on any given\ncampus. We can let our contacts know about our students, what their interests\nare, and they will get hired.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric Foster In a move that wouldn\u2019t have been possible without integration, five Commonwealth University faculty members, representing Bloomsburg, … Continue reading >A Partnership in Water Ecology<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6V0yH-16i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4328,"url":"https:\/\/munews.mansfield.edu\/?p=4328","url_meta":{"origin":4234,"position":0},"title":"Mansfield students attend American Fisheries Society Meeting","author":"rmcnamara","date":"March 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Katarina Frantz, a senior in the fisheries program at Mansfield, took third place for her poster presentation, \"Significant Differences in Average pH and Alkalinity Found Among Streams with Differing Bedrock.\" LOCK HAVEN, PA (03\/29\/2023) Commonwealth University's (CU) biology department recently hosted the two-day Pennsylvania State Chapter of the American Fisheries\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/munews.mansfield.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1.jpg?fit=1174%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/munews.mansfield.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1.jpg?fit=1174%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/munews.mansfield.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1.jpg?fit=1174%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/munews.mansfield.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1.jpg?fit=1174%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/munews.mansfield.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/1.jpg?fit=1174%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1358,"url":"https:\/\/munews.mansfield.edu\/?p=1358","url_meta":{"origin":4234,"position":1},"title":"Biology Students Excel at State Meeting","author":"Terry Day","date":"April 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"MANSFIELD, PA\u2014 Six Mansfield University senior Biology students gave research presentations at the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania University Biologists (CPUB) meeting at Millersville University on April 16. 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