The Georgia Fishes Field Study: An immersive, field-based class at the University of Georgia

University fisheries departments exist to train the next generation of scientists and management professionals. By offering a combination of lecture- and lab-based coursework, faculty strive to teach students both the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to succeed in the fisheries profession. There are, however, limitations to this traditional educational format. For instance, university-level scheduling of 3- or 4-h labs limits the types of hands-on activities students can experience and often restricts field trips to areas near campus. Many courses, therefore, rationally lean on collections of preserved fishes, but this is often a poor substitute for collecting, handling, and observing wild fishes. Additionally, studying fishes in a laboratory setting does not fully prepare students for the kind of fisheries fieldwork they may be expected to conduct as professionals. The problems highlighted above were observed in the late 2000s at the University of Georgia (UGA)’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. To address these shortcomings in the curriculum, Jay Shelton of Warnell’s fisheries program, in collaboration with Brett Albanese of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, developed the Georgia Fishes Field Study (GFFS; FISH 4650L/6650L) to be taught during the intersessional period between the spring and summer terms referred to at UGA as the “Maymester.” This 4-credit course is offered annually and satisfies major elective requirements for Warnell’s fisheries and wildlife major and fisheries and aquatic sciences minor. It also serves as a general elective for many other majors and counts as and fulfills the requirement for an experiential learning activity for many schools and colleges within the University. The GFFS was not intended to be a “field techniques” class, nor was it designed to be a “field ichthyology” course. Instead, the GFFS has three primary goals: Provide students with immersive, hands-on experience with common fisheries sampling techniques, familiarize students with the fishes and habitats found across Georgia and to teach them how to identify fishes they encounter, and introduce students to professionals, career opportunities, and issues across the fisheries profession. The intensive nature of the Maymester course format provides the perfect structure to accomplish these goals. Maymester field courses typically meet for at least 7–8 h per day, 4–5 d/week for three consecutive weeks. The GFFS is capped at 16 students and features a high ratio of instructors to students (typically a teaching team of 1–2 faculty and 2 staff). Aside from two half-day classroom lectures, nearly all class activities take place in the field. From streamside lectures to hands-on sampling, students are truly immersed in the fishes of Georgia. Sampling sites are selected to highlight different ecoregions and watersheds across the state. One week each is spent in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, the Georgia Piedmont, and the Coastal Plain of Georgia (Figure 1). In a typical Maymester, the class travels over 1,300 mi, visits over a dozen sites, and observes up to 143 fish species across 41 families. Overview of the Georgia Fishes Field Study by week and geography. Sampling sites across the state are indicated with circles on the map at right, with site information highlighted on the left. Home bases for each week are indicated by house icons. Different shades on the map correspond to the Mountains (M), Piedmont (P), and Coastal Plains (C) ecoregions. Each morning, students and instructors load gear into course vehicles, and the class drives to the day’s sampling site. Upon arrival, students assemble gear under supervision and direction of the teaching team. Before getting in the water, the teaching team will present a streamside lecture about the site’s habitat features, watershed, socioecological history, species of particular interest, ecological threats to the system, and anything else considered noteworthy. The students keep track of the lecture’s details in a field notebook that is included as part of a larger lab manual (the “course pack”) provided to the students and is available at https://bit.ly/4q6nQtF. As the class progresses, students are encouraged to make their own observations at each site, drawing connections to topics we discussed at previous locations. The teaching team measures and records various water quality parameters and interprets them with the class. Students also meet and learn from a series of invited guests. These have included fisheries professionals from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, federal agency scientists, extension specialists, academics, riverkeepers, and other nongovernmental organization employees. Guests typically remain with the class for both lunch and sampling, giving students a chance to interact with them one-on-one and ask questions about the guest’s career. Once the lecture and site observations are completed, sampling begins! Sampling methods vary by site and include backpack and boat electrofishing, seining, snorkel surveying, hook and line sampling, gill netting, trawling, trapping, cast netting, and other opportunistic methods of capture. Among these, backpack electrofishing and seining are the most common techniques used. As students are introduced to new methods, the teaching team instructs them on how to safely and effectively use these gears and demonstrates proper sampling techniques. Students are then allowed to operate equipment with appropriate assistance and supervision; experiential learning like this enhances student learning outcomes (Burch et al., 2019). As they become increasingly proficient, students are allowed to sample with greater independence, but always with direct supervision and guidance. Additionally, the gradual release of responsibility and increase in independence allows students to practice what they have learned, build confidence, and apply their skills to new situations (Traver & Matera, 2021). The class may sample a site for several hours and may use the same method at several sites over the duration of the course. The extended time on the water ensures that each student is given repeated opportunities to participate in each sampling role and to hone their skills over time. Building these field skills is beneficial for students; proficiency with fisheries field techniques was identified as the second-most important proficiency for new-hire fisheries management and research biologists at state agencies (Gablehouse, 2010). The structure of the GFFS also simulates the rigor and challenges that may be experienced during an intensive season as a field technician, something that is not possible in a traditional university lab. As students sample each site, the live specimens they collect are shuttled to a central fish processing area with aerated holding tanks. There, an instructor identifies them and creates a species list to be used in the streamside lesson that follows sampling. If possible, instructors retain enough specimens of each species to demonstrate any sexual dimorphism, distinct forms, or individual variation in appearance. When sampling is completed, the “fish show” commences. The teaching team introduces the class to each species they have collected, proceeding in phylogenetic order of family. Students then closely observe the fish in portable viewing tanks that are passed around (Figure 2). As each fish is presented, instructors inform students of its taxonomy—family, common, and scientific names—as well as key identification characteristics of the family, genus, and species. Instructors also discuss the biology, ecology, and life history of each species when relevant or interesting. Similar species are often shown in tandem so that students can actively compare their characteristics. There are plenty of opportunities for students to ask questions before the fish show continues. Students take detailed notes in their course packs and are encouraged to take photos and make sketches to reinforce their learning. As the course progresses, students increasingly participate in the fish show, for instance, by identifying species they have previously seen or assigning a new fish to a family learned in a previous fish show. When the fish show concludes, fish are released back into the waterway near the habitats where they were collected. Learning actively—in this case by collecting and observing wild fishes—helps improve student performance over traditional lecture-based classes (Freeman et al., 2014). The novelty of learning about live animals in an outdoor setting facilitates student engagement and promotes the building of deeper connections to the course material (Fedesco et al., 2020); the fish show certainly makes each species more memorable than a textbook or preserved specimen. The class then packs up and returns to its home base, where students clean gear and set it to dry overnight. The teaching process. (A) A streamside “fish show” in the Piedmont. After sampling, the teaching team identifies and discusses the species observed at each site while students take notes in their course pack. (B) Sorting fish from a coastal trawl. (C) Kick seining a mountain stream. (D) Identifying coastal fish in the University of Georgia Marine Institute’s wet lab. (E) A student photographs a pair of endemic Altamaha Bass Micropterus calliurus for future studying. During Piedmont Week, the first week of the class, home base is the University of Georgia’s Whitehall Forest Fish Lab, just down the road from the main UGA campus. Students return to their own homes each evening this week. However, the class travels away from campus for the second and third weeks of the course, which requires additional logistical considerations. The class camps in tents at a state park during Mountain Week and stays in dormitories at a state college and at the UGA Marine Institute on Sapelo Island during Coastal Week. During these weeks, the teaching team takes on additional roles as residence directors and must supervise the students 24/7. The teaching team is also responsible for purchasing groceries for the group the weekend before traveling. For both weeks, the students are split into three groups that take turns assisting with cooking, dishes, and gear duties. Mundane experiences and casual interactions like these help students build relationships with each other and the teaching team, improving classroom connection (Fedesco et al., 2020). Under the direction of the teaching team, students prepare coffee and breakfast each morning and dinner each night using ingredients purchased for the course. Once each week, the course purchases dinner at a restaurant for the students. Students eat a streamside lunch each day during a natural break in activity; the class supplies sandwich-making materials, chips, fruit, and other snacks. We always provide large coolers of water and plenty of snacks, and make regular vehicle stops so that students can access restrooms. Details about course administration and other logistics can be found in Supplementary Document 1 and Supplementary Figure 1. Supplementary Table 1 features an example class budget, and Supplementary Table 2 contains a gear list for the course. At the conclusion of the course, final grades are assigned based on three categories: quizzes (60%), field notes (20%), and participation (20%). Quizzes are given twice each week and are based on material from the lectures (including guest lectures) and fish shows (Figure 3). They are not cumulative—each one tests only material covered since the last assessment. The specific content for each quiz is developed by the teaching team immediately before it is presented to the students, and the streamside nature of the quiz requires questions that can be answered in just a few words. There are two main categories of questions: some reflect important concepts from the lectures, and others focus on fish identification and biology. For both types of questions, faculty emphasize topics or species that students have encountered multiple times. Students may be shown a fish and asked to identify its species or family, list distinguishing characteristics, or relate information about its biology or ecology. Combinations of concept and identification questions are sometimes used. For instance, students may be shown a fish of the genus Cyprinella and asked why sedimentation can be particularly harmful for fish in this genus. Such a question requires them to be able to identify the genus of the fish, recall that Cyprinella are crevice-spawning specialists, and recognize that sedimentation would bury spawning habitat. Quizzes are graded and returned to students promptly so that they can learn where they need to improve. The assessment process. (A) Questions for the students’ final quiz are drafted on a mobile phone before administration. (B) Students are shown an Oyster Toadfish Opsanus tau and asked to identify its scientific name as part of their final quiz. (C) The final quizzes are collected for grading. Students are expected to take thorough notes in their course packs. For each sampling site, the course pack has spaces for information on site name, coordinates, and water quality. Students write a site description based on class discussion and are encouraged to annotate a site map. During each fish show, students keep a list of every species they observe, organized by family. They record common and scientific names and note key identification characteristics. Faculty review course packs after the first week of class and give feedback on how to improve their notes for the rest of the course. Participation is evaluated based on a student’s engagement in both in-field and out-of-field activities. Participation is paramount in the GFFS. Students are expected to participate fully in sampling and during fish shows, and must also assist with loading gear, cleaning equipment, cooking, washing dishes, and anything else to make the course move smoothly. For many students, working as a team in remote and challenging environments is a new experience that can help build confidence and contribute to personal growth. For the past 15 years, the Georgia Fishes Field Study has been one of the most popular courses among University of Georgia fisheries students. Alumni of the program credit the course as being among the most influential of their college experience. By immersing students in three weeks of intensive fisheries sampling across various ecoregions in Georgia, we teach them both about the fish they see and about fisheries fieldwork in general. Students report that their hands-on experiences in the GFFS provided real-world experience that helped prepare them for careers in fisheries or fisheries-adjacent professions. We strongly feel that this class has met the objectives it was developed to achieve and surpassed anything the originators thought it would become. Our intent in communicating this information is to inspire and inform other fisheries educators who may be interested in developing a similar opportunity for their students. Practical, hands-on learning experiences, like the GFFS, provide immense benefit to students, both in helping them connect to the material (Fedesco et al., 2020) and in preparing them for their future as fisheries professionals (Myrick et al., 2013). In this paper and its supplemental documents, we outlined the structure of the GFFS and detailed the preparatory work required to create the course and keep it running smoothly. We have also described and provided resources that might be helpful for prospective educators, including supplemental tables with example budgets and materials lists. The course pack and a story map highlighting the experience of the 2023 cohort are available at https://bit.ly/4q6nQtF. We encourage readers to reach out to the corresponding author if you desire more information about this program. Supplementary material is available at Fisheries online. No data were generated or analyzed in support of this paper. None declared. Many individuals have contributed to the development and ongoing success of the GFFS, including teaching team members, teaching assistants and technicians, guest lecturers, administrators, and many others. Among them are Bob Bahn, Misha Boyd, Emma Browning, Eric Cohen, Sarah Covert, Casper Cox, Shelley Dodd, Duncan Elkins, Ani Escobar, Kait Farrell, Bryan Fluech, Mary Freeman, Mikell Gleason, the Grant Family, Rachel Guy, Marty Hamel, Pete Hazelton, David Higginbotham, Greg Krakow, Bernie Kuhajada, Dave Neeley, Barbara Odil, Katie Owens, Tiffany Penland, Bob Ratajczak, Fletcher Sams, Ike Sellers, Gracie Townsend, and Jenny Yearwood. We would also like to thank the College of Coastal Georgia, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the UGA Marine Institute, the UGA Domestic Field Study, and the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Finally, the authors would like to acknowledge all the students who have participated in Georgia Fishes Field Study—it has been our privilege to teach you all.