Active Learning

Matt Nelson, left, uses a spotting scope to count waterfowl on Allouez Bay while Jamie Vee assists by writing down data.

Waterfowl Census

Matt Nelson
Sioux Falls, S.D.
Biology major

Matt Nelson, a biology major from Sioux Falls, S.D., peers through a large spotting scope, carefully examining the hundreds of ducks, geese, pelicans and swans resting on Allouez Bay on a warm spring day.

“One female widgeon out there,” he says quietly. “Another pair of mallards. Another female bufflehead. A male redhead. And there’s a wood duck. Male.”

Standing nearby, Jamie Vee, a biology major from Brule, Wis., carefully writes down the species, gender and numbers of the birds as Nelson reels them off.

“You’re looking at the shape of the head, eh?” Vee asks as Nelson spies a sculp in the distance.

“Yeah,” Nelson replies without looking up. “The sculp will have a rounded head.”

This is the second year that Nelson is conducting a census of migrating waterfowl that stop over on Allouez Bay, a large body of water connected to Lake Superior and just a 10-minute drive from UW-Superior. The project is providing him with invaluable research experience and enabling him to meet one of the key requirements for his degree in biology. He’s also gathering information that will help scientists to better understand waterfowl migration locally and across the continent.

Undergraduate research projects like the Allouez Bay waterfowl census are an important part of UW-Superior’s biology program, says Dr. Ed Burkett, the biology professor who’s overseeing Nelson’s work.

“Here, students can learn how to apply what they’ve learning in class to the process of science,” he says. “It takes them through the process: asking questions, developing methods to answer those questions, collecting data, analyzing date and eventually interpreting that data.”

“If we want to produce students who are marketable, they not only need to learn content but also how to apply that content,” he adds.

Each UW-Superior student majoring in biology must complete a “capstone experience.” That can be a research project, an internship off campus or a symposium in which the student does extensive library research and writes a paper or makes a presentation.

On a research project, students learn how to conduct their work to professional standards. The faculty member supervising their work provides instruction and quality control. As each student becomes more proficient, they can operate with greater independence.

For Nelson, conducting the waterfowl census means learning how to identify up to 25 bird species by gender at a distance. During both the spring and fall migrations, he must go to Allouez Bay to make his census count every day, tallying as many as 2,000 birds a day. He puts in an estimated 200 hours collecting data in the field, then spends more time analyzing and assembling his findings. In addition to knowledge gained in his Biology classes, he uses skills gained in the university’s Geographic Information Systems program to examine the information.

Along with gaining research experience, Nelson also is providing professional-quality information that will help scientists to better understand the role Allouez Bay plays in the migration of North America’s troubled waterfowl population.

“Allouez Bay is an important refuge for waterfowl during the migration,” Dr. Burkett says. “Because of potential development plans, we need to understand what parts of Allouez Bay need to be preserved.”

Nelson says he doesn’t mind the time spent on the project.

“I hope to work for Ducks Unlimited in the future. This helps me with identifying waterfowl, and it looks good on my resume,” he says.

This isn’t the only active learning experience Nelson has gained at UW-Superior. He’s also worked with scientists at the Lake Superior Research Institute located on campus, and he held a summer internship with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Nelson’s enthusiasm isn’t unusual. Dr. Burkett says his students take pride in their projects.

“It’s not a lab exercise. This is an experiment where we don’t know the outcome,” he says. “There’s an added level of excitement the students don’t get in class. And it makes them more marketable when they’re looking for jobs or trying to get into graduate school.”