There are many challenges facing natural resources programs in North American higher education today. Pressures exerted by a new generation of students, changing workplace requirements (including undergraduate core‐knowledge requirements), and an increasingly specialized professoriate are great but not insurmountable. We discuss each of these issues and pose potential solutions to address each including adopting new pedagogical techniques for content delivery (e.g., adapting courses to be inclusive of new technologies), revising curriculum to meet the needs of a new suite of learners (e.g., developing curricula that allow structured flexibility of choices, designing a core curriculum that is a mix of single‐discipline courses and courses that integrate across disciplines), and new strategies for faculty engagement in discipline‐specific survey courses. By remaining deliberate and effective in our pursuit of quality higher education we have the opportunity to ensure we are delivering the best possible education to the future professionals of our disciplines.

Although interactive technology is presumed to increase student understanding in large classes, no previous research studies have empirically explored the effects of Clicker Cases on students' performance. A Clicker Case is a story (e.g., a problem someone is facing) that uses clickers (student response systems) to engage students in understanding the meaning of the science contained within the story. Using an experimental randomized Solomon design across 11 institutions, we found that Clicker Cases

Undergraduate enrollment in natural resources‐related programs are 13% lower than they were 30 years ago, even though overall collegiate enrollment has increased by roughly 8.5 million students during the same period. Because of this, we decided to investigate the question of student retention in a fisheries and wildlife (FW) program from the perspective of the students themselves. In this pilot study, we conducted face‐to‐face interviews with seven students who left a FW program (“leavers”), and asked them 13 questions related to their experiences at a large Midwestern university to better understand student reasons for leaving. Specific findings include: the importance of job prospects and earnings potential, a general reluctance to pursue postgraduate education, a degree of disillusionment at the relative lack of outdoor experiences offered, and a desire for more active participation in the undergraduate program. Some students expressed a feeling of deception at the realities of the departmental curriculum, although these were poorly defined and may be the product of other issues such as unrealistic program expectations. The results of this study inform the discussion on student retention and motivation in natural resource programs, and provide real‐world suggestions on how to stem student attrition.

No abstract

Fisheries and other natural resource professionals face growing challenges in their fields and the resources that they manage. Many are well aware of the pending impacts of retirement of the Baby Boomers and the loss of collective knowledge held by those individuals. We are also acutely aware of the damaging impacts of reduced budget allocations for natural resources–based programs. Concomitant to the decrease in funding is the ever‐increasing complexity of the fisheries discipline that brings with it new and more complicated ecological and governance challenges. These, and the evolving preferences, morals, and values of today's college students, pose a unique and difficult dynamic for engaging the next generation in the stewardship of fish and wildlife resources. Critical to the success of future conservation efforts will be the modification of educational and workplace systems, including the American Fisheries Society, to prepare and support future professionals so that they may handle this suite of complex, interdisciplinary issues. Understanding the characteristics of the next generation of natural resource leaders, and the individuals with whom they will interact in pursuit of conservation, is key to ensuring that they can meet the challenges of a new era in resources management. The purpose of this article is to describe the next generation of fisheries professionals (the Millennials) and to provide suggestions for how higher education and the fisheries profession can best prepare to support the success of this generation and ultimately the future of fisheries conservation and management.