Achievement

IGERT trainee Kimberley Maher and IGERT advisor Elena Sparrow developed and co-taught a course in "Research methods for interdisciplinary research". This course drew students from the IGERT program and from the university more broadly and involved IGERT trainees and faculty in guest lectures. The course exposed students to a variety of research methods used in interdisciplinary research that links the natural and social sciences and provided both an overview of methodology and practical exercises in the use of these methods. Topics covered included analysis of qualitative data, conducting surveys, using maps to document local knowledge, and interviews, use of film, community-based participatory research, documenting traditional knowledge, ecological survey sampling, use of GIS, remote sensing, and climate modeling. The course is being adapted as a course that links indigenous and western science for indigenous high school students in the village of Fort Yukon in summer 2010.