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Renewable Natural Resources 444
Taught by
Dr.Sorin Popescu,
Assistant Professor, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences-Forest Science
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Overview
Renewable Natural Resources (RENR) 444 is a 3 hour course taught by Dr. Sorin Popescu that focuses on student understanding of the theory and practical application of remote sensing and image processing techniques. RENR 444 meets for 2 hours of lecture and 3 hours of lab each week. During this time students are introduced to the various steps in processing images acquired through remote sensing techniques and learn how to apply them to develop answers to many different types of questions.
RENR 444 is an unusual course in that it is stacked with a graduate section. As the 10-12 undergraduate students who elect to take RENR 444 each spring make their way through the course, they interact and learn from the graduate students who are also taking the course. From this experience, the undergraduates gain insight into how the graduate students assimilate and utilize the course material to answer questions from their own fields of research and study and get exposed to a wider berth of application possibilities of the techniques they are learning about.
The learning experiences offered in Dr. Popescu’s course are grounded by a large project that students work to complete over the course of the semester. Early in the semester Dr. Popescu asks all students to submit an abstract containing their idea for their project and the methods that they will use to complete it. As he reviews these abstracts, Dr. Popescu checks that students are asking reasonable questions that can be investigated using the techniques covered in his course.
Details
For this course, Dr. Popescu has designed a series of lectures, discussions and laboratory experiences that build on one another as they progress through the steps of image collection and processing that researchers use. This progression allows students knowledge and understanding about the various techniques and steps involved with image collection and processing to accumulate in a method similar to that which they will utilize when doing their own research projects. Students are asked to reflect on their learning experiences in brief write-ups of the weekly labs.
A few days before their final project write-ups are due, students present their projects to one another in class. From their presentations, students get a chance to see the questions and different analysis techniques their peers utilized in the completion of their projects. They also get the chance to field questions and comments about their projects which they can use to improve their final written projects.
All of the aspects of Dr. Popescu’s RENR 444 course combine to give students a practical experience doing what real scientists do as they utilize remote sensing techniques in their research. As they progress through Dr. Popescu’s curriculum, discuss their ideas and complete their projects, students develop skills of critical thinking and analysis that will be beneficial to them in their future lives, no matter what they choose to do. What follows is a description of how the content and methods used in this course focused student learning in each of the ways outlined in the 7 characteristics of inquiry and /or research-based teaching promoted by the QEP Council.
Assimilate Facts
Since the experience RENR 444 students get is centered around a project, student need to use the knowledge they gain over the course of the semester in order to answer the research questions they chose to focus on. Students hand in an abstract detailing their idea for their project early in the semester do they can think about how the new information and skills they are learning during lecture and lab apply to their ideas about their projects. Dr. Popescu also asks that all of his students include explicit connections to at least three of the labs they complete over the course of the semester in their project write ups.
In addition to students assimilating facts in their project write-ups, Dr. Popescu also include multiple chances for students to discuss ideas amongst themselves during his lectures. In this way students are able to voice and work out their ideas with their peers before speaking about them to the class as a whole. Sometimes, students feel more comfortable talking about topics that they do not understand very well with other students, and may take risks they would not take when speaking to the course instructor or the whole class. Using small discussion groups in class also engages students while they are in class and helps them focus and assimilate the information being presented more efficiently.
Recognize Unanswered Questions
Dr. Popescu also utilizes class discussion to help students learn to recognize unanswered questions. By looking at various images in class, and seeing how they have been processed, students begin to see what kinds of data they can gather from them and therefore, what kinds of questions can be asked. Dr. Popescu also brings in examples of good questions from his own research to demonstrate how remote images can be utilized. Having the undergraduate section stacked with a graduate section also helps in this regard. Undergraduate students are able to see the different kinds of questions the graduate students with various interests and backgrounds come up with and get a better idea of the wide applicability of remote image processing techniques.
Formulate Strategies for Seeking Answers
Much of the content taught in RENR 444 is focused on formulating strategies for seeking answers. Image processing is in itself a toolbox of methods that can be used to answer a variety of questions. As students learn various image collection and processing techniques they are able to see how strategies for seeking answers to various questions may be formulated.
Dr. Popescu also asks his students to turn in abstracts containing the question they will try to answer with their project and the methods by which they will attempt to answer them. He reviews the abstracts and provides feedback for students so that they will be headed in the right direction and be able to successfully answer the questions they chose to focus on using the remote sensing data available to them.
A final way that Dr. Popescu helps his students formulate strategies for answering questions is by augmenting the techniques he demonstrates in class with examples from his own research. By showing students real world applications of image collection and processing techniques, the course material becomes more meaningful to them.
Investigate Appropriately
Appropriate investigation is what RENR 444 is all about. The techniques for image collection and processing students learn in Dr. Popescu’s course are appropriate investigation methods for a multitude of research applications. Students learn these techniques through the lectures, discussion and labs that are included in RENR 444 as well as through their completion of the final project.
Another way that Dr. Popescu tries to help students understand appropriate ways of investigating is to insert short exercises in his lectures that stimulate dialogue among his students. For example, he may have students in small groups briefly outline the advantages and disadvantages of an image processing technique. As they discuss their ideas about the exercise, students form a better understanding of the content than they would if it had been presented to them since they are actively engaged and using their knowledge to come to a conclusion.
Draw Valid Conclusions
As students work to complete their final projects, Dr. Popescu guides their analysis of the images they have chosen to do their project on. He helps students to process images in a way that they are best used to draw conclusions that answer the questions they are asking. Through their completion of their projects, students complete research close to how real scientists go about their work and draw valid conclusions from the data at hand.
Communicate Effectively
Effective communication is also central to RENR 444. Not only are students asked to follow specific guidelines as they complete their written final projects, but they also need to condense their ideas contained in their reports into a short conference-like class presentation. By promoting these two modes of communication, students gain valuable skills utilizing both.
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