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What courses can I take in college? What are the best classes to take at UNH?

Welcome to our course spotlight blog series, where we spotlight courses from different colleges and programs at the Â鶹app. Follow along to see what makes these courses stand out and what UNH students learn from them.

Today, we're putting the spotlight on Aquatic Plants in Restoration and Management, a course in the biological sciences department. Learn from the course's instructor, Gregg Moore, what it's like to take a course full of immersive field trips to major aquatic habitats in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. 

What do students learn in this course?

Through immersive field trips, students will survey each of the major aquatic habitats of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, while learning about the key plant species that characterize each, spanning fresh, estuarine, and marine conditions. In addition to learning the flora of each habitat we visit, students will learn about innovative ecological restoration techniques, protection of rare species, patterns of spread of invasive species, as well as management of our critical aquatic resources.

What are students doing in the photos here?

Equipped with chest waders, students were surveying the muddy waters of Mill Pond in Durham for a state-listed endangered plant species known as Star Duckweed (Lemna trisulca). Since 2008, students in this course have been actively documenting this species and several other rare aquatic plants in Mill Pond. These long-term data were critical to the planned Mill Pond dam removal and ecological restoration that is slated to begin this year. The rare Star Duckweed was found and collected by the students and successfully relocated to a nearby freshwater pond in collaboration with the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau.

What hands-on learning happens in this course?

Students will search for and document rare plant species, conduct ecological monitoring for rare plant relocation and living shoreline projects, and engage in dune restoration plantings in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The first 7-8 weeks of this course are 100% field-based, conducting two three-hour field trips per week. Habitats students immerse themselves in include ponds, streams, bogs, swamps, forested wetlands, salt marshes, dunes, and more!

"Through the repetition of seeing certain plants over and over, students build their identification and recollection skills almost by osmosis, as the fun of physically wading through these habitats shifts the focus from memorization to memories." 

"With eight straight weeks of field trips, I don't think there's another class quite like it."

What skills do students gain for their future careers?

Successful completion of this course would translate directly into skill sets essential to becoming a wetland restoration ecologist, environmental consultant/wetland delineator, an environmental regulator, or an aquatic resource manager. Students in this class read peer-reviewed primary literature in restoration ecology, rare and invasive plant ecology, and environmental permitting and regulatory guidelines. Graduates of this class have gone on to graduate school, various forms of aquatic research, careers as wetland delineators, and local, state, and federal agencies that protect aquatic habitats in New England.

What is your approach to mentoring your students?

Immersion! When I took this class over in 2008, I flipped the way it had been taught on its head. Rather than learning all the plants using a traditional systematics approach, I wanted students to experience the numerous aquatic habitats these plants have evolved and adapted to thrive in first. Acquainting students with the habitats, often knee-deep in water and mud, builds strong associations for learning the myriad of plants they contain, while reinforcing the types of adaptations certain plants must have to be successful in these conditions. I insist students touch, smell, eat (on occasion), and otherwise make a connection with the plants, often adding anecdotes about traditional uses or other noteworthy touchpoint to help each one have a story. 

Through the repetition of seeing certain plants over and over, students build their identification and recollection skills almost by osmosis, as the fun of physically wading through these habitats shifts the focus from memorization to memories. Year after year, I see students start off convinced they'll never learn all these unique and diverse plants. Yet from the third or fourth field trip to the last day of class, they're firing off scientific names like they've known them their whole lives!

What do students love about this course?

I think it's the authenticity of learning in the field. With eight straight weeks of field trips, I don't think there's another class quite like it.

"Year after year, I see students start off convinced they'll never learn all these unique and diverse plants. Yet from the third or fourth field trip to the last day of class, they're firing off scientific names like they've known them their whole lives!"