This course provides students with an introduction to field ecology, biodiversity and conservation in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Seminars, class discussions, guest lectures, and field exercises provide overviews of the geological and natural history of the Yucatan and its biota, an introduction to different habitats and techniques for assessment of biological diversity, an overview of the scientific method, and conservation issues in Latin and North America generally, and the Yucatan specifically. We provide an introduction to Spanish with a handout of useful words and phrases. We plan to visit at least three locations in the Yucatán, including Calakmul World Biosphere Reserve. Each field site serves as a geographic focus for group research projects designed in consultation with the instructor. Class fieldwork provides introductions to some of the typical, rare and endemic flora and fauna of the region. The course occurs over Reading Week for Queen’s students, but also requires being absent for one week of classes thereafter. We provide a letter to this effect to each participant, but students must approach individual faculty at their home institutions to request accommodation. We will have opportunities to visit Mayan archaeological sites and local communities engaged in biodiversity conservation. The course will be undertaken with faculty and students from the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo and the La Universidad Autónoma de Campeche.

• Seminar: 15 minute seminar based on scientific literature (20%)
• Field book including habitat and species descriptions & all field data (20%)
• Written report (10-15 pages) based on data collected for group research projects (due~ 4 weeks after end of field course) (40%)
• Participation in class discussions & field activities) (10%)
• Blog entries (alternating groups of students write daily entries for a bilingual course blog describing their insights: e.g. https://queensumexico2015.wordpress.com) (10%)