Students will investigate how human decisions and environmental changes are impacting local fish and wildlife populations by engaging directly with community partners, documenting real evidence, and defining a grounded challenge that will guide their population modeling and conservation design work.

Students will investigate how genetic traits, environmental pressures, and human decisions interact to influence species survival and biodiversity. Through community interviews, data analysis, and structured root cause investigation, they will synthesize evidence into a clear problem statement and propose a research-informed conservation direction grounded in natural and artificial selection.

Students will generate multiple evidence-based conservation solution concepts for brook trout or another local species, evaluate them against documented community needs, gather early stakeholder feedback, and produce a detailed, community-informed plan and hypothesis to guide implementation and testing in the next phase.

Students will implement and test their Brook Trout SWAP population models and conservation proposals with real community partners, collect and analyze evidence of effectiveness, gather stakeholder feedback, and document how their solution performs and improves based on real-world input.

Students will present their brook trout population models and Community-Validated SWAP proposals to conservation partners, demonstrate how natural and artificial selection shaped their design decisions, document stakeholder feedback, and reflect on their scientific growth and community impact.