Contact: Dr. Ted Gragson (tgragson@uga.edu).

The environmental challenges faced by society demand solutions that meet human needs and protect essential ecosystem functions.

Using the latest cyber-technologies, we will link students and researchers with a common interest in using interdisciplinary methods for the long-term study of socio-ecological systems across North America.

About the course:
Social science disciplines have moved in the past 50 years toward more integrative, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research contributing to the collection and analysis of long-term data sets often with the purpose of influencing environmental decision-making.

This course will consider the following questions:

How does the conception of humans as biological and cultural organisms embedded within social and ecological systems affect the framing of research questions?

How can questions be posed in interdisciplinary collaborations that are sensitive to the human condition, but recognize the data-driven expectations of the activity?

How can information needed to influence public choices and the policy process be collected in consideration of the trade off between timeliness and certainty?

Your guides in this course will be Drs. Ted Gragson (University of Georgia), Laura Ogden (Florida International University) and Morgan Grove (USDA Forest Service-Burlington).

Quickstart
First-time Class Instructions & Reminders for using the Virtual Classroom.  Entering the virtual classroom for the first time or need to refresh your memory?  This is your first stop.