更新时间：作者：小小条
笔架山林间的繁茂绿意里，草木葱茏裹满清新的校园气息。年轻的温肯学子们或抬头、或弯腰，或举着相机凝神取景，穿梭在细密的蕨丛之间。
每个周一周三上午，相似的画面总会轮番上演。每学年，来自理工学院的环境科学与生物科学的高年级学生都会走到大自然中去，上一门叫做《野外生物学：陆地系统》的课程。自开课以来，他们的实践足迹已遍布校园周边的湖泊、湿地、山林……
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这门课，以“山野湖泊”为阵地
据了解，这门课程开设于2023年，共4学分，面向高年级同学开设，为环境科学专业必修课，生物科学专业选修课。以大自然为教室，课程开展跨生物学、生态学、自然科学等多学科的调查。
一本野外生物学素描本、一部生物学纪录片、一次研究实验报告，课程考核方式灵活多样。为了更好地调动学生们的积极性，在原有的课堂讲授、户外实践、实验操作外，今年还新增了无人机实践，将遥感航拍与高空智能检测的知识巧妙融合了进来，不断推陈出新，努力让学生掌握新型野外研究工具，并培养他们的学科综合应用能力。
课程负责人、理工学院教师Heriberto Vélëz (Eddy)说：“这会是一门让学生放下手机、看见真实世界的探索课。学生可以自主选择想要观察和研究的对象，进而提出问题。校园周边的一草一木、真菌植物、昆虫都是天然的研究素材。在日常生活中留心观察，才能真正体会到生物学的独特魅力。”
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这门课，“脑洞大开”是必须的
走在校园中，你是否有留意过有的植物叶片出现了黄褐色的斑点，思考过这是由什么原因导致的植物病害？这是Eddy在课堂上向学生们提出的探究问题之一。8月初，在校园偶然散步时观察到了一株植物叶片存在病害，他随即将这一发现当作了课程主题。
Hydrangea-plants
带着这一疑问，15名师生采集了出现病害的植株样本带回实验室，初步推测是由某种真菌导致。他们通过无菌操作分离组织样本，完成DNA的提取操作，利用PCR技术扩增真菌DNA片段，测序验证进而鉴定“取食”植物组织的致病真菌种类。最终，通过比对测序结果证实，所分离的真菌与中国研究者此前发现的、导致绣球花发病的真菌一致。
在野外生物学的课堂上，类似由观察身边的生态入手，引入“问题导向式学*”的实践案例还有很多。在终期汇报中，有的小组以延时摄影呈现蚂蚁取食飞蛾尸体、消耗其软组织的过程，展现生物间取食关系；有的搭建人工饲养环境，对蚂蚁群体的取食偏好、筑巢规律、分工模式等展开为期数周的针对性观察与实验；有的记录三裂线虫从幼虫到成虫的生命周期，通过数据可视化识别其生长和发育模式。
“我们鼓励学生自主选择感兴趣的观察对象，他们的选题看似趣味化，研究过程却按照科学逻辑有序推进。”Eddy谈到。生物科学的范旻语曾以桑蚕的生长历程作为观察课题。他介绍道：“我们采用定量测量的方法，重点记录蚕的生长发育数据，包括个体长度变化、生长阶段转换时间等，并形成连续的观察记录，利用周期性的观察数据，初步绘制出蚕的生长变化曲线。”范旻语表示，最终将两个多月的观察过程制作成纪录片，看到成品时，有满满的成就感。
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这门课，会让你“身怀绝技”
追踪鲸鱼迁徙、观测古建筑中鸟类筑巢行为……你知道这些野外生物学的经典研究，其实都是由无人机的追踪实现的吗？在传统野外调查难以覆盖大范围区域时，无人机可辅助实现空中观测，高效追踪动植物种群、监测生态环境变化。
从今年秋季开始，在环境科学专业徐舒扬老师的指导下，无人机教学作为另一特色环节融入野外生物学课程。课堂上，除了掌握无人机起降、航线规划、影像拍摄等基础操作，同学们还能入门学*如何利用软件将拍摄的二维影像重建成三维校园模型，直观呈现校园的空间布局和生态分布，使野外生物学的实践更具科技感和高效性。
特别在研究生态问题时，有了全景式的影像数据作为支撑，就能把更多精力放在深度分析、生态演变规律探究及针对性解决方案构思上。“无人机技术已经在中国和美国的部分高校得到应用，因此对学生进行相关技术培训显得尤为必要。未来，课程还将组织学生使用无人机拍摄校园及附近的南北山区域，观察植被分布、动植物的活动轨迹，并重点检测山区松树等树木的死亡情况，为生态问题分析提供影像数据。”
老师们希望，在将来的课程中，病树防治研究得以推进。有了无人机这位“空中医生”及时为山林“把脉会诊”，在病害发生时及时观察记录，通过智能算法检测疫木，将实现松材线虫病等的精准防控。
尽管课程学*仅为期一学期，但同学们对野外生物学的科研探索仍在持续。美肯交换生America Luna今年来到温肯交换时选修了该课程。在上这门课过程中收获了纯粹学*的乐趣，在回到美国肯恩大学的校园后，她也想选择继续研究尤宁郡当地的植物群和鸟类。大三的折益舟则在野外调查时产生了灵感，确定以野外采集茄科植物的温度响应机制为研究方向。他表示，课程为开展野外生物学的相关研究提供了一次系统性的培训，更为后续深入推进野生植物转录组的研究积累了扎实的知识储备。
正如课程负责人Eddy所说：“这会是一门为学生带来持续性影响的课程。当他们自主发现、尝试解决问题，一点点跨学科琢磨探索，最终获得新发现时，那种成就感是令人难忘的。这种成长比单纯的知识记忆更有意义。”这门能带学生看见真实世界的课程，也将不断推陈出新，让更多学生从中受益。
Have You Taken WKU's "Field Biology" Course?
Amid the lush greenery of Bijia Mountain, young WKU students crane their necks, bend low, or focus intently through camera lenses as they weave through dense fern thickets, the fresh campus vibe wrapping around the verdant foliage.
Similar scenes unfold every Monday and Wednesday morning. Each academic year, senior students from the Environmental Science and Biology programs embark on a course titled "Field Biology: Terrestrial Systems," which takes them into nature. Since its launch, their practical explorations have spanned lakes, wetlands, and mountain forests surrounding the campus.
A Classroom Without Walls: Mountains, Lakes as Learning Grounds
Launched in 2023, this 4-credit course is a mandatory requirement for Environmental Science majors and an elective for seniors in Biological Science. Taking nature as its classroom, it integrates interdisciplinary investigations across biology, ecology, and natural sciences.
Assessment is flexible, including a field biology sketchbook, a biology documentary, and a research lab report. To boost engagement, beyond traditional lectures, outdoor practice, and lab work, drone training was added this year—seamlessly blending remote sensing, aerial photography, and high-altitude intelligent detection to equip students with cutting-edge field research tools and foster comprehensive disciplinary application skills.
"This is an exploration course that encourages students to put down their phones and see the real world," said course coordinator Heriberto Vélëz (Eddy), a faculty member of the College of Science, Mathematics, and Technology. "Students can independently choose objects to observe and research, then raise questions. Every plant, fungus, and insect around the campus is a natural research subject. Only by observing carefully in daily life can they truly appreciate the unique charm of biology."
A Course Powered by Curiosity: Learning Through Questions
Have you ever noticed yellowish-brown spots on plant leaves around campus and wondered what causes such diseases? This is one of the exploratory questions Eddy poses to his students. During a casual walk in early August, he observed a diseased plant and immediately turned the discovery into a course theme.
With this question in mind, 15 teachers and students collected samples of diseased hydrangea-plants and brought them back to the lab, initially speculating that a type of fungus was the culprit. Through sterile tissue isolation, DNA extraction, PCR amplification of fungal DNA fragments, and sequencing verification, they identified the pathogenic fungus feeding on the plant tissue. Finally, sequence comparison confirmed that the isolated fungus matched the one previously identified by Chinese researchers as causing hydrangea diseases.
In the Field Biology classroom, there are many instances of "problem-based learning" that begin with observing the surrounding ecosystems. In their final presentations, one group utilized time-lapse photography to show ants feeding on a moth’s corpse and consuming its soft tissues, thereby demonstrating interspecific feeding relationships. Another group set up artificial rearing environments to conduct targeted observations and experiments on the feeding preferences, nesting patterns, and division of labor of ant colonies over several weeks.
"We encourage students to choose observation objects they are interested in. Their topics may seem playful, but the research process proceeds in an orderly manner following scientific logic," Eddy noted.
Fan Minyu, a Biological Science student, once took the growth process of silkworms as his observation topic. "We adopted quantitative measurement methods to record key growth data, including changes in individual length and the time of growth stage transitions, forming continuous observation records. Using periodic observation data, we initially plotted the silkworms’ growth curves," he explained. Fan added that turning more than two months of observations into a final documentary brought an unforgettable sense of accomplishment.
Fieldwork with Tech Boost: Where Practical Skills Take Shape
Tracking whale migrations, observing bird nesting in ancient buildings... Did you know these classic field biology studies are actually enabled by drone tracking? When traditional field surveys struggle to cover large areas, drones support aerial observation, efficiently tracking the populations of flora and fauna, and monitoring ecological changes.
Since the fall semester of 2025 and with the help of Dr. Shuyang Xu, drone training has been integrated into the course as a featured module. In class, students not only master basic operations such as drone takeoff and landing, route planning, and image shooting but also learn to reconstruct 2D images into 3D campus model using software. It intuitively presents the campus’s spatial layout and ecological distribution, making field biology practice more tech-savvy and efficient.
Especially when researching ecological issues, with panoramic image data as support, more energy can be focused on in-depth analysis, exploring ecological evolution laws, and formulating targeted solutions.
"In the future, the course will organize students to use drones to photograph the campus and nearby North and South Mountains, observing vegetation distribution and animal activity trajectories, with a focus on monitoring the death of pine trees and other mountain vegetation to provide image data for ecological analysis," Eddy said.
He hopes that disease prevention and control research on dying trees will advance in future courses. With drones acting as "aerial doctors" to monitor mountain forests in real time, record diseases as they occur, and detect infected trees through intelligent algorithms, precise prevention and control of pine wilt disease and other ailments will be achieved. This is already being done by other universities in China and the USA, so training our students in this technology makes sense.
Although the course lasts only one semester, students' scientific research exploration in field biology continues. America Luna, an exchange student from Kean University, took this course during her exchange at WKU this year. She developed a genuine interest and desire to learn in the course, and plans to study the local flora and birds of her region as soon as she returns to the Union campus in the United States. Zhe Yizhou, a junior majoring in Biology, drew inspiration during field surveys and decided to focus his research on the temperature response mechanisms of wild-collected Solanaceae plants. He stated that the course provided systematic training for conducting field biology-related research and accumulated a solid knowledge reserve for subsequent in-depth research on the transcriptome of wild plants.
As Eddy, the course coordinator, said: "This will be a course that has a lasting impact on students. When they independently discover and solve problems, explore interdisciplinary areas incrementally, and ultimately summarize new discoveries, the sense of accomplishment is unforgettable. This kind of growth is more meaningful than mere knowledge memorization." The Field Biology course, which allows students to experience the real world, will also keep innovating and benefit more students.
文字｜项温蔚
图片 | 受访者提供
一审 | Heriberto Vélëz 徐舒扬 叶琼
二审 | 王舒 尚蕊
三审 | 吕卓环
责编 | 传播与公共关系部
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