Conservation Science- Teaching and Learning (Advanced)
Workshop Conducted By
Andrea Phillott + Maria Thaker
About the Workshop
The workshop will provide an opportunity for faculty, teaching assistants, and other undergraduate and postgraduate educators in the fields of conservation biology and conservation science to discuss and exchange ideas about teaching and learning. Potential topics include evidence-based teaching, learning activities, teaching resources, and opportunities for professional development.
What participants will learn
Participants will be asked to share and discuss resources they have found valuable for their professional development as educators, designing teaching practices, facilitating student learning etc so that we may learn from others' experiences. Participants will also be given the opportunity to ask for recommendations of resources to meet specific teaching or learning needs.
Pre requisities (if any)
The workshop will be of greatest relevance to faculty, teaching assistants, and other educators currently engaged in conservation biology/science education at the undergraduate or postgraduate level. Later-stage postgraduate students and early career researchers interested in a career in academia are also welcome.
Materials required
None
Workshop Name
Know-Hows of Popular QDAS (Basic)
Workshop Conducted By
Medha Nayak
About the Workshop
These days we use several qualitative data collection methods to conduct in-depth studies however analysis of the voluminous data is often challenging and tedious. Understanding the needs of the researchers, several qualitative data analysis(QDA) software have made it to the market. Here, in this workshop the participants will be introduced to basics of QDA, related software and its functions to perform QDA.
What participants will learn
1. Learn about basics of qualitative research 2. Gain knowledge about several QDAS and its functions
Games are a powerful tool for communicating conservation to both children and adults. Organisations have begun using games to make conservation concepts more engaging to the public. Games have the potential to enhance engagement and motivation as they are immersive, enjoyable, experiential, easily establish dynamics and can break barriers.
This workshop offers a glimpse into the role of games in various aspects of conservation. It will give a brief introduction to play-based learning and its scope or relevance to impactful learning online, offline or in the field – from sparking a connection with the natural world to communicating research, conflict resolution and community building.
The workshop will be divided into 3 segments. In the first segment participants will get acquainted with a range of interesting games developed by various individuals and organisations, bringing out the versatility of competitive and collaborative gaming to meet a range of conservation outcomes. The second segment will focus on practical examples from Early Bird's repertoire of games and activities in bird education. The latter part of the workshop will comprise basic guidelines for game design and the participants will have the opportunity to apply these learnings in a small-group activity in which they will design their very own game.
It goes without saying that we will play a number of games in the course of the session!
What participants will learn
An introduction to play-based learning, its value in designing impactful outreach strategies
A new perspective and methodology for conservation education and effective communication
Basics of game design and practical application of these guidelines
Role and scope of games in various aspects of conservation with case studies of the use of play in conservation (India and globally)
Materials required
None
Workshop Name
Back on Track - Design Tools for Conservation (Basic)
Train-elephant collisions are the second highest cause of unnatural mortality for Asian elephants in India. These accidents are particularly severe in Assam, with over 50 recorded deaths in the past decade. We use design tools combined with already existing conservation knowledge to facilitate and develop mitigation measures. This is by involving the diverse stakeholders (railways, forest dept., local residents, and conservationists), who possess a nuanced understanding of their contexts as creative contributors to the project.
The workshop will cover our process and highlight the insights that are framing conservation interventions on the ground. We will dive deep into the problem of elephant-train collisions; covering how to navigate complex, systemic challenges, and how to structure these into simpler phases. We will also cover design tools appropriate for these phases – such as systems thinking, participatory design, and generative workshops to engage stakeholders more effectively - as they have proved to be critical for projects of this nature. We will highlight these through two brief case studies that have used a design approach for conservation in our work - including human-elephant conflict (HEC) hotspot management in the Western Ghats, and a field manual for managing HEC in the country.
The session will include a hands-on activity designed for a virtual audience - where the participants will be provided with problem statements and will test out a design approach to address conservation issues. Given the interdisciplinary nature of conservation challenges in India, we feel that a design approach would help develop interventions as it has been framed for such systems.
What participants will learn
Design tools for conservation, a novel way of looking at conservation problems, a mechanistic understanding of elephant-train collisions and pointers for dealing with complex systems.
Pre requisities (if any)
None
Materials required
Pen and paper, Post-its (not mandatory)
Workshop Name
Know what it takes to publish (Basic)
Workshop Conducted By
Sanjay Molur
About the Workshop
The workshop will provide all the necessary information and training for scientific writing in a peer-reviewed journal for all students and researchers. Students will be learning from the chief editor of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, one of the top conservation journals with almost 25 years of experience. The workshop will help in prioritizing time for publications during research or conservation actions, on the inner workings of how a scientific journal processes manuscripts, pointers on how to present the research, which appropriate category to consider, understanding & evaluating a journal by its scope, importance of formatting and style sheets, scientific ethics, plagiarism and predatory publications will be addressed apart from the important processing aspects and time behind the scenes post submission of manuscript.
What participants will learn
Writing skills for scientific publications.
Knowledge on inside working of a journal to make better submissions and have more insights.
Evaluate the journal that suits the study the best.
Understanding the role of ethics in scientific publishing to ensure maintaining credibility in the scientific community.
Understanding what is national and international journal and the distinction of actual reach and scientific impact.
Pre requisities (if any)
Basic understanding of the need to publish is the only requirement.
A form will be distributed to the participants, before the workshop including the following questions.
Why the participant wants to be a part of the workshop
Past experience with publications
How long they feel a peer review should take or the submission to get published.
These will help in making the session interactive.
Materials required
Read up on JoTT, its Aims & Scope, Submission guidelines, Policies, etc.
Workshop Name
Neutral Theory and its Application in Conservation Genetics (Basic)
Workshop Conducted By
Ranajit Das
About the Workshop
Geneticist Sewall Wright first introduced the concept of effective population size into population genetics. Wright defined effective population size as "the number of breeding individuals in an idealised population that would show the same amount of dispersion of allele frequencies under random genetic drift or the same amount of inbreeding as the population under consideration". Importance of effective population size is monumental in conservation genetics especially related to the conservation of the endangered species. Effective population size is affected by selection occurring at closely linked sites that rarely recombine. DNA sequence variability studies have shown that neutral diversity is not constant across the genome. In this workshop we will learn the basics of Neutral Theory and various forms of Natural Selection. We will further link this to conservation genetics, especially focusing on the effective population size.
What participants will learn
Learn how natural selection can play a crucial role in conservation genetics
Pre requisities (if any)
Basic evolutionary biology and mathematics/statistics
Materials required
Notebook, Pen
Workshop Name
Study Design in Ecology and Conservation (Basic)
Workshop Conducted By
Kavita Isvaran
About the Workshop
How should a study be designed to ensure that it effectively addresses the identified research question? This workshop will discuss important elements of study design in ecology and conservation including how to identify and distribute sampling units and avoid bias while doing so; how many samples to collect; and what inferences can and cannot be drawn from particular research designs. Throughout, we will use examples to make concepts as clear as possible. As a part of the workshop, we will set exercises in study design for participants and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the designs that participants come up with and ways to improve them to obtain better results.
What participants will learn
I. An understanding of key elements of study design essential to arrive at generalisable and reliable findings when addressing research questions in ecology and conservation
II. Practical aspects of applying these key study design elements
Pre requisities (if any)
None
Materials required
None
Important instructions for Participants:
Registration to the conference is mandatory for attending workshops. You will not be able to sign up for a workshop without a valid registration.
There will be multiple workshops running simultaneously between 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM on all four days of the conference.
Participants can register for a maximum of ONE workshop per day.
Spots per workshop will be limited and will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis.
When you attend the conference, we request you to stick to the workshops for which you register online, and not skip them / try to switch at the last minute. If you switch/skip, you may be depriving a fellow participant from taking advantage of an otherwise available spot and hence we discourage this practice.
Once you have chosen your workshops (online) and confirmed your submission, we will not be able to change your choices.
After confirming your submission, you will be able to view on your dashboard the workshops that you have chosen.
PLEASE make a note of the workshops you will be attending, and the respective days, for your own reference.
