About EREN

Contact: Dr. Laurie Anderson at erenteam@gmail.com.

Initiated: 2010

Description

Establishing an ecological research/education network at primarily undergraduate institutions

In May 2010, our group was awarded a $495,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Research Coordination Networks (in Undergraduate Biology Education) program for a five-year project. The impetus behind this project was the growing focus on research among faculty from primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) along with the recognition that many of the most pressing questions in ecology and environmental science are best addressed using multiple sites and coordinated data collection. We argue that greater collaboration among PUIs will allow these data to make more meaningful scientific contributions. Short-term projects can be linked to similar or related work at other institutions, thus extending questions across space rather than time.

Objectives

  • Developing collaborative research projects among PUIs at regional to continental scales, paying special attention to the constraints of scientists with significant teaching responsibilities
  • Designing those projects to achieve and maximize student engagement in authentic science while still maintaining a goal of generating transformative, publication quality data
  • Creating a continental-scale ecology course module that will be team-taught by scientist-educators distributed across different PUIs using data from our collaborative projects as a centerpiece
  • Enhancing the role of PUI scientists and their students in existing and emerging ecological research networks, such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)
  • Creating an online database of future and existing data sets collected from the network of PUIs

Leadership

EREN was initiated by a group of Founders (below), then led through the RCN by the Leadership Team (below). EREN is now governed by its Board of Directors.

 

Founders

Laurie Anderson, Ohio Wesleyan University, OH

David Bowne, Elizabethtown College, PA

Jerald Dosch, Macalester College, MN

Amy Downing, Ohio Wesleyan University, OH

Tracy Gartner, Carthage College, WI

Shane Heschel, Colorado College, CO

Martha Hoopes, Mount Holyoke College, MA

Dan Hornbach, Macalester College, MN

David Johnson, Ohio Wesleyan University, OH

Karen Kuers, Sewanee: The University of the South, TN

Erin Lindquist, Meredith College, NC

Kathleen LoGiudice, Union College, NY

Beth Lynch, Luther College, IA

Jose-Luis Machado, Swarthmore College, PA

Karen Nordell-Pearson, Hope College, MI

Catherine O’Reilly, Bard College, NY

Bob Pohlad, Ferrum College, VA

David Schimel, National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)

Kathy Shea, St. Olaf College, MN

Jeff Simmons, Mount St. Mary’s University, MD

Carolyn Thomas, Ferrum College, VA

Kerry Woods, Bennington College, VT

 

RCN Leadership Team

Laurie Anderson, EREN Coordinator, Ohio Wesleyan University, OH

David Bowne, Elizabethtown College, PA

Marissa Witkovsky, EREN Administrative Assistant

Jerald Dosch, Macalester College, MN

Amy Downing, Ohio Wesleyan University, OH

Tracy Gartner, Carthage College, WI

Martha Hoopes, Mount Holyoke College, MA

Dan Hornbach, Macalester College, MN

David Johnson, Ohio Wesleyan University, OH

Karen Kuers, Sewanee: The University of the South, TN

Erin Lindquist, Meredith College, NC

Kathleen LoGiudice, Union College, NY

Jose-Luis Machado, Swarthmore College, PA

Tim McCay, Colgate University, NY

Bob Pohlad, Ferrum College, VA

Kathy Shea, St. Olaf College, MN

Jeff Simmons, Mount St. Mary’s University, MD

Carolyn Thomas, Ferrum College, VA