Spring 2025

BIO 4721 300: Special Topics - Ecological Data for Conservation

Course Description:

Warren Wilson has a phenology camera funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) here on campus? That’s right! Ecological data is all around us, and the key for scientists is to know how to access and work with these data. In this course we will discuss strengths and limitations of remote sensing (what it can, and cannot do), explore and understand existing long-term monitoring networks, and hear from a diverse set of scientists via discussions and guest lectures. Students will also work with these data in brief exercises in R, although not to worry - no coding experience is necessary for this class. These rotating courses address timely and current issues in conservation biology. Students explore the topic within the field of conservation biology and learn how the principles of conservation biology are applied to the topic and used in conservation on the ground. These courses combine the theoretical knowledge students gain in conservation and wildlife biology and applied work in conservation.

Anonymous Student Evaluations:

  • “Brent is enthusiastic, well informed, and flexible to student’s needs and interests. I hope he becomes a professor here one day!”

  • “I think that he is very passionate about this topic and is very clearly extremely knowledgeable about the topic. It is something I had very little knowledge about and it was lovely to learn from someone who knew what they were talking about.”

  • “Brent is an amazing professor; he overall is great at explaining the topics and teaching students with close to no experience with coding and R. He made sure to explain to everyone thoroughly what the content was and if you were experiencing some type of issue (which typically would happen since I had no prior experience) he would stop the lesson and help, sometimes helping multiple people at once. He was never late and often kept the students’ best interest at heart. I would strongly encourage anyone to take this class next semester.”

  • “Brent was very enthusiastic about teaching data science and R skills. He was very helpful and patient when answering questions and was encouraging to students.”

  • “Brent was really wonderful to work with and was very excited about topics, which made me excited to learn.”

  • “I genuinely enjoyed this course and the content I learned seems like it will be very useful for me going forward! Some of the ways data science can be used for ecology are fascinating and I had no idea about them. It was well-taught overall, and the instructor compensated well for unexpected issues with R. My only feedback is that it would be okay to have more confidence and assume that students will bring up issues on our own if they arise.”