Preparing Students for Conservation Careers through Project‐Based Learning

Orr (1993) and the Education Committee of the Society for Conservation Biology (White et al. 2000) published appeals in this journal asking that educators more effectively prepare students for the challenging and varied field of conservation biology. Conservation biology is ultimately an applied science and the authors pointed out that new graduates of conservation programs have little or no real-world experience. Touval and Dietz (1994) described their success in incorporating interdisciplinary thinking and problem-solving skills into the curriculum of their conservation education program at the University of Maryland. Spurred on by Eriksson’s (1999) comments, Inouye and Dietz (2000) explained how their students engage in problemsolving tasks by devising practical solutions to real conservation problems. We agree that it is important to teach skills such as time management, how to work cooperatively (e.g., McDuff 1999), and how to use the interdisciplinary nature of conservation science as a progressive tool in classes (Inouye & Dietz 2000). After all, the multidisciplinary aspect of conservation biology is partly what makes the field so dynamic and exciting. Students enroll in graduate programs with the expectation that they will be prepared to enter the conservation field upon graduation (Orr