Achievement

Desired Goal: To teach IGERT Trainees how to work on a large interdisciplinary project in working groups. In the Fall 2009 course, "Climates & Borders: Monarch Butterflies & Local Economies in Mexico," we divided Trainees into four groups and asked each to focus on one element of the Monarch butterflies and their migration to Mexico: physiology, land cover/micro-climate, migration history and patterns, and human dimensions. The groups worked separately, but frequently shared their progress with others in order to produce a cohesive final project on the Monarchs. In January 2010, faculty and Trainees traveled to Michoacan, Mexico to visit the Monarch overwintering sites and meet with communities responsible for maintaining the preserves.