Field Courses 2024-2025 - Department of Biology

Course Description

The Biology Field Course (BIOL4001) is a required component of York’s Environmental Biology degree and the Environmental Science (Honours Biodiversity and Conservation Stream) degree. It is also open to students registered in other York Biology degrees. Field courses are an integral part of undergraduate training in ecology and conservation. Students often report that the field course they take is the most enjoyable and enriching part of their degree, since they are immersed in an outdoor environment where they learn hands-on skills working with living organisms. Many students use the experience gained in field courses to obtain jobs as field workers and technicians, and to develop ideas for a 4th year research thesis or graduate work in field biology.

Students have access to a variety of field courses that vary in terms of budget, calendar, personal situation, and interest. The Department of Biology annually offers Urban Watershed Management and Biodiversity, restricted to York students. In addition, York’s Department of Biology is a long-time member of the 17-university Ontario Universities Program in Field Biology (OUPFB). These universities coordinate and pool their field courses, which means that York students have access to a great diversity of options over the duration of the field course season (late April to early September, with an occasional offering in Fall or Winter).

Urban Watershed Management and Biodiversity (Category A) is typically offered in the S1 term.
Applications are currently not open and will open Tuesday January 28th to Thursday January 30th.

The OUPFB courses (Category B) are in-person offerings that are mostly residential (i.e. students stay overnight), usually situated at locations remote from York and from the home university, and some of these include international sites. They run for two weeks straight including over the middle weekend. Students travel to field settings (often a research facility) to acquire skills in field methods, collecting and analyzing field data, the conducting of field experiments, as well as learning about the natural history and ecology of the local environment.

Applications are currently not open and will open Tuesday January 28th to Thursday January 30th.

There is a third category (Category C); please see below.

See article in YFile.

BIOL 400X: Regardless of the category (A, B, or C), the first field course on your York transcript will be assigned SC/BIOL 4001 3.00, the second will be assigned SC/BIOL 4002 3.00, and the third will be SC/BIOL 4003 3.00. (Any reference to BIOL 3001 3.00 should be read as BIOL 4001 3.00, since the 3^rd year version has been retired).

Applying: Applications are currently not open and will open Tuesday January 28th to Thursday January 30th. You will use a online application MachForm for field courses in Category A or B.

Securing your place with a deposit:

There is no fee for the Category A field course other than tuition, but we invite you to apply on the MachForm so that we can assess the demand.

For OUPFB courses, upon applying for a module to reserve your spot, please bring in a $350 deposit to the Undergraduate Biology office in Life Sciences Building room 102. We cannot accept digital payments for the deposit, so it must be a cheque or cash. This deposit is partial payment of the course fee. We will review the applications, and we will only review those for which the deposit has been received.

There are 3 main categories of field courses:

Applications are currently not open and will open Tuesday January 28th to Thursday January 30th.

Urban Watershed Management and Biodiversity:

We are aware that some students will have paid employment for which hours may conflict. Therefore, the course director will allow some flexibility for absences when they are notified in advance. But please note: this is not an asynchronous course.

Non-York students may apply to take this course under a Letter of Permission from their home university. Non-York students use the same online application form here to register their interest in enrolling.

Please watch the 4-minute video on the Category A course webpage describing how and why we took the course online. This video was presented at the Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution August 2021 conference.

Applications are currently not open and will open Tuesday January 28th to
Thursday January 30th.

When you take a field course module from York or another participating university through the OUPFB, you will earn credits towards your York degree. York will secure and reserve a number of spots from the available modules. These vary tremendously in terms of location (e.g., Ontario, New Brunswick, Belize, and Africa) and subject matter.

Shortly after the review of applications, students will be advised whether they were successful in getting their first or second choice, or if they are on a waiting list. Since not all spaces reserved for different Ontario universities fill up in this first round of applications, unfilled spaces go back into the general pool. Be aware that York may be asked to open unused spaces reserved for York students to other participating universities following the review of applications. Students from all universities can apply for these released spots with no restrictions. This process continues until a few weeks ahead of the course module start date with the goal of filling all the course spots.

Successful student applicants will be emailed about when they can officially enroll in the course.

There are two additional payments students must make following the $350 deposit. These are: (a) paying the balance of the course fee to the university offering the module, and this varies depending on which university is offering the module with the deadline varying depending on when the module starts, and (b) course tuition, payable to York. In most cases, students must also cover the costs of getting to the course location.

OUPFB 2025

York University has successfully bid for 14 spots across various modules.

Module details for 2025 are currently not available, but will be posted here.

2025 Offerings for York Students:

MODULE	MODULE NAME	HOST UNIVERSITY	# OF SPOTS
2	Ecology of Spring	Queens	2
3	Plants and Fungi of the Carolinian Zone	York	3
4	Belize: Rainforest and Reef	Waterloo	1
8	Behavioral Ecology of Bats	Carleton	1
9	Biodiversity and Conservation in East Africa	Queens	1
12	Marine Biology and Oceanography	Guelph	2
16	Experimental Studies in Marine Biology	Western	1
17	Aquatic Ecology and Experimental Limnology	Lakehead	1
18	Environmental change in Lake Ecosystems	Queens	1
20	Winter Ecology of Birds	Queens	1

Please check the current guidelines for York University students wishing to study abroad, which may include taking a field course: http://yorkinternational.yorku.ca/global-learning

Many other higher education and environmental research institutions offer field courses. You may see notices for these courses posted at York. Some of these courses are taught by highly qualified researchers and some of them will, on assessment by the York Environmental Biology Advising team, qualify for degree credit (BIOL 400X) in a York Biology program.

Before you enroll in such a field course not offered by York or through the OUPFB, you MUST consult the Undergraduate Biology Office about whether its course curriculum will qualify for credit towards your degree program. For information about taking courses for credit at other institutions, review the university guidelines for Letters of Permission (LOPs).

Operation Wallacea

One of the organizations that offers field experiences that may be approved to satisfy BIOL 4001, 4002, or 4003 (400X) is Operation Wallacea. Note that if you wish to join one of their expeditions or courses, you will have to (a) get approval in advance that the course will satisfy BIOL 400X, (b) enroll in BIOL 400X, and (c) pay tuition. For approval, contact Alex Mills ammills@yorku.ca as undergraduate advisor for field courses. Please see the link below for more information.

To learn more: Operation Wallacea

The prerequisites for field courses are indicated in the module descriptions; you must have the necessary prerequisite courses to enroll. Students must have completed first year biology, and commonly a second-year ecology course is required.

Regardless of the category (A, B, or C), the first field course on your York transcript will be assigned SC/BIOL 4001 3.00, the second will be assigned SC/BIOL 4002 3.00, and the third will be SC/BIOL 4003 3.00. Each field course module will be 3.00 credits and two-week long. Each student may take a maximum of three field courses towards their degree.

Assignments vary with modules and often include preparatory readings, seminars to be given during the course, and a post-course report. If there is preparatory work required for a particular module, the instructor will contact you ahead of time so you can complete such work. All assignments, written exams, field notebooks, herbariums, and essays are to be completed and submitted to the instructor within 4 to 6 weeks of the end of the field course module. Most assessment occurs during the course.

DEPOSITS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE

Students who drop a field course should not expect a refund of any field course costs, and students are encouraged to purchase cancellation insurance if airline tickets are required. In case of a medical, non-medical, or family emergency, it is at the discretion of the host university should they issue a refund for any costs. Students should also note that listing 2nd and 3rd choices in their applications commits students to those courses should they be placed into them.

To select a field course:

For OUPFB in-person field courses, decide on a module you wish to take as well as a second and third choice in case there is high demand or a module is cancelled. Please consult the OUPFB website for OUPFB Module Offerings.
Ensure you have completed the required prerequisite courses as indicated in the module description.
To apply to field courses, there will be two links posted by January 28th . One will be for the blended Urban Watershed Management Application Form and one will be for the Ontario Universities Program in Field Biology (OUPFB) Application Form.

To increase the likelihood of getting a spot in an OUPFB course, students should apply as soon as the application window opens. Students will be more likely to get a spot in a course in which York has reserved spots. For any modules for which York does not have reserved spots, students would then have to wait to see if there are spots in those courses once the first round of placements has been made. This could be perhaps as late as early March.

Once your application has been received and approved, students will be responsible for submitting a deposit payable to York University to secure their spot. There are two additional payments students must make following the $350 deposit. These are: (a) paying the balance of the course fee to the university offering the module, and this varies depending on which university is offering the module with the deadline varying depending on when the module starts, and (b) course tuition, payable to York. In most cases, students must also cover the costs of getting to the course location.

Once your application has been received, reviewed and students assigned, further instructions will be provided regarding course enrolments.

For questions for 2025 offerings, please contact any of the following:

Professor Alex Mills – ammills@yorku.ca York’s OUPFB representative
Mark Vicari- mvicari@yorku.ca Field Course Professor
Surayya Khan – surayya@yorku.ca (field course administrative support)
Rosella Abinoja -bioaccts@yorku.ca (field course accounts)