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ARS Home » Plains Area » Bushland, Texas » Conservation and Production Research Laboratory » Soil and Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #343645
Research Project: Precipitation and Irrigation Management to Optimize Profits from Crop Production

Location: Soil and Water Management Research

Title: Water and society: Interdisciplinary education in natural resources

Author
item KULCSAR, LASZLO - Kansas State University
item AISTRUP, JOSEPH - Auburn University
item BULATEWICZ, THOMAS - Kansas State University
item PETERSON, JEFFREY - University Of Minnesota
item WELCH, STEPHEN - Kansas State University
item STEWARD, DAVID - Kansas State University

Submitted to: Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/1/2015
Publication Date: 8/1/2016
Citation: Kulcsar, L.J., Aistrup, J.A., Bulatewicz, T., Peterson, J.M., Welch, S.M., Steward, D.R. 2016. Water and society: Interdisciplinary education in natural resources. Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education. 158:120-131.

Interpretive Summary: Natural resource management and education, including those related to groundwater, must account for both the natural and human components of a very complex interactive system. However, examples of such interdisciplinary approaches are rare, and therefore guidelines for successful natural resource education program are poorly defined. Scientists in the ARS led Ogallala Aquifer Program from Kansas State University, Auburn University and University of Minnesota developed a graduate seminar on water management. While the seminar was a successful in terms of educating students on complexity of water management, several challenges remain when implementing such courses. These challenges include not only the organization and assessment of course deliverables, but also fitting such courses into the administrative structure of the university when represented disciplines are located in several colleges across campus. These results are of interest to other universities developing similar courses.

Technical Abstract: Natural resource management and education must account for both the natural and human components of a complex system, yet examples of such interdisciplinary approaches are still relatively rare, especially in education. This study discusses a graduate seminar on water management, developed from an interdisciplinary National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. The seminar applied constructivist pedagogy which is not only best suited for interdisciplinary work, but also allows flexibility to redesign the course components and deliverables after each evaluation cycle. While the seminar was a successful experiment, several challenges remain when implementing such courses. These challenges include not only the organization and assessment of course deliverables, but also fitting such courses into the administrative structure of the university when represented disciplines are located in several colleges across campus.