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This chapter describes programs created to improve the preparation of future STEM faculty for their roles as educators.

Variation in the size of home range of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has broad implications for managing populations, agricultural damage, and disease spread and transmission. Size of home range of deer also varies seasonally because plant phenology dictates the vegetation types that are used as foraging or resting sites. Knowledge of the landscape configuration and connectivity that contributes to variation in size of home range of deer for the region is needed to fully understand differences and similarities of deer ecology throughout the Midwest. We developed a research team from four Midwestern states to investigate how size of home range of deer in agro-forested landscapes is

Wildlife biologists use current land‐cover databases to understand wildlife—habitat relationships but must make assumptions about potential vegetation and successional dynamics when predicting species responses to ecological changes. Understanding the potential of habitat types to provide wildlife habitat components throughout succession, as opposed to solely examining current suitability with land cover, has important implications for white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) management as challenges such as overabundance and diseases emerge. Our objectives were to develop a process to identify and delineate habitat‐type boundaries, determine successional pathways, develop landscape‐scale models to quantify deer habitat potential, and describe how habitat‐potential models could be used in planning. We delineated habitat‐type boundaries and identified successional pathways using digital vegetation and geologic databases and information from the literature for an 8,100‐km2 area in northeastern Lower Michigan. We identified deer habitat requirements from the literature; constructed models to quantify fall and winter food, thermal cover, and spring and summer habitat suitability throughout succession; and projected suitability throughout the study area spatially and temporally. Regional differences in habitat types (e.g., poorly drained coniferous types in the northern portion and dry‐mesic deciduous or mixed coniferous‐deciduous types in the southern portion of the study area) determined regional differences in habitat potential. Generally in the study area, fall and winter food suitability was highest during early (<30 years)‐ and mid‐successional stages (30–100 years), thermal‐cover suitability was highest in middle stages, and spring and summer habitat suitability was highest in early stages. The process presented can help managers define wildlife management goals through an understanding of landscape composition, the spatial arrangement and successional changes of habitat types, and their relationship to populations.

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Flows Environmental connections through flows of nutrients, energy, and species Environmental and socioeconomic connections through flows of nutrients, energy, species, information, and materials Regulate flows of species, information, materials, and people across distant places; control the interactions among flows of focal species and other types of flows across distant places for focal species (e.g., generate funding and reduce predatory mortality). Causes Environmental factors Environmental factors, socioeconomic factors Create and use socioeconomic incentives and disincentives such as social norms for people to conserve migratory species across distant places. Effects Effects on species (population, habitat) Effects on species (population, habitat) and people Reduce trade-offs and enhance synergies between environmental and socioeconomic effects across distant places. Environmental feedbacks among distant places Environmental and socioeconomic feedbacks among distant places

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Decisions affecting wildlife management and conservation policy of imperiled species are often aided by population models. Reliable population models require accurate estimates of vital rates and an understanding of how vital rates vary geographically. The eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus) is a rattlesnake species found in the Great Lakes region of North America. Populations of the eastern massasauga are fragmented and only a few areas harbor multiple, sizable populations. Eastern massasauga research has typically focused on single populations or local metapopulations but results suggest that demographic parameters vary geographically. We used 21 radiotelemetry datasets comprising 499 telemetered snakes from 16 distinct locations throughout the range of the eastern massasauga to characterize geographic patterns of adult survival using the known‐fate model in Program MARK. Annual adult survival ranged from 0.35 to 0.95 (mean = 0.67) and increased along a southwest to northeast geographic axis. Further analysis of 6 datasets indicated no consistent difference in survival between males and females. Our results provide a better understanding of the relationship between survivorship and geography for the eastern massasauga and suggest that such variation should be incorporated into population models as well as local and regional management plans. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.