At a time when countless events are being postponed or cancelled, the School of Natural Resources can announce that, in March 2022, it will host the 14th Biennial Conference on University Education in Natural Resources (BCUENR) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The conference “provides a unique opportunity for university-based natural resource educators from across the country to share and explore pedagogical innovations and strategies,” as the BCUENR website states. The event, which was most recently held at the University of Montana, spans three days and features plenary and breakout sessions that encompass diverse subject matter and perspectives. The conference theme was the “Changing Climate of Natural Resource Education.”
Larkin Powell, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources associate dean and SNR professor of conservation biology and animal ecology, said that the UNL proposal to host the conference centered on developments across the SNR landscape, from the fisheries and wildlife program tripling in size over the past 15 years to the addition of new degree programs.
“Hosting the conference is peer-recognition of the quality of our program in natural resources education,” Powell said. “As hosts, we will be bringing leaders in teaching methods and program assessment to our campus. And, we will be able to showcase some of the innovative things that our instructors have been doing. Participants at the 2020 conference were excited to learn about our new major in Regional and Community Forestry, for example. CASNR’s efforts to develop a science literacy area of scholarship will also be on display. Our graduate students who have been involved in scholarship in teaching and learning will also be able to share their work at the conference.”
Powell recently attended the conference in Montana, and said that BCUENR draws faculty and administrators of range management, forestry and fisheries and wildlife programs from around the country.
“I have enjoyed the family atmosphere at this conference, where everyone’s learning about new ideas in teaching and program development is on display,” Powell said.
The event will be held at the Nebraska Innovation Campus Conference Center. And, Powell said, the spring conference will almost surely coincide with the annual sandhill crane migration. A pre-conference field trip was part of the pitch.
More information about the conference will be available as the event date nears. To read more about the most recent conference, visit https://www.cfc.umt.edu/bcuenr2020/default.php
Natural Resources