Teaching the concept of desert ecosystem.

In order to test the possibilities of the desert as an educational resource for ecosystem study a development programme was started at the Institute for Desert Research in Israel in 1972. The objectives of the investigation were: (1)To study the structure and function of a loessial plain and rocky hill-top ecosystem in the Negev desert highlands. (2)To develop an ecology course for teaching the concept of the desert ecosystem. The course should demonstrate the structure, function and methodology of desert- ecosystem investigation. O (3)To evaluate the ability of high school, teachers’ training college and university students for modelling and analysing desert ecosystems. The investigation showed that the teaching of a field-oriented ecology course in a relatively simple ecosystem improves students’ understanding of principles and concepts of system ecology and assists them in the use of investigatory systems approach. Participants were able to choose the main entities which compose the system, define the relationship between them, specify the mechanisms by which changes in the system take place, and to model and analyse the system.