Thinking Outside the Box

What is your first reaction when you see a mouse in your kitchen? Do you scream? Do you run away? What do you do once the initial shock of seeing a mouse in your house wears off? The average response is to set a mousetrap because you do not want this nuisance animal running around your house. Trapping is the most humane way to get rid of unwanted animals in certain environments, and Dr. Webb Smathers, professor emeritus of agriculture and environmental sciences, believes that teaching students the art of trapping is a great skill because it makes them think outside of the box (or the trap).

For students in Smathers’ Creative Inquiry, The Economic, Ethical, and Practical Aspects of Trapping, a normal meeting consists of wandering around the woods tracking hog trails or building fish traps. Every day is different, and students never know what to expect because one day they can be setting fish traps and the next they can be frying fish. Students learn the theory and methods behind trapping as well as the implementation of these theories out in the field. The purpose of the Creative Inquiry is to teach students the benefits of trapping because it is the most effective way to deal with nuisance animals, which can cause issues for ecosystems. Nuisance creatures must be dealt with, or they will displace other organisms critical for maintaining a healthy environment.

Smathers’ group focused primarily on hog trapping; he and his students worked to track a nuisance hog using trail cameras and setting corn feed on the trail. A trail camera is placed on a trail of an animal and used to capture pictures when it senses movement. Students checked the cameras every day for pictures of the hog, and once the hog was sighted or detected, the students set a trap. Emsley Caldwell, junior management major, really enjoyed the experiences she had through the Creative Inquiry. “We learned valuable trapping techniques that can be used in the future to do our share in keeping the animal population under control. I learned so many new things about different nuisance animals such as hogs, beavers, opossums and many other creatures. We learned about their eating, living, and daily habits, which allowed us to out smart them with our traps,” Caldwell commented. The group trapped a hog that weighed in at approximately 230 pounds and then took it to be processed for the meat. Although the group focused on hog trapping, they also worked with homemade fish traps and beaver traps. The group caught two beavers, which were processed for their pelts.

The Creative Inquiry project allows students to venture outside of the classroom and put what they are learning to the test. “That’s one of the best things about Creative Inquiry, that deeper learning that occurs when small groups of students have the opportunity to learn the theory and method but actually do the practices. Empirical applications are very important. That learning will stick with the students and I for years. They teach me as well,” Smathers stated. The empirical lessons learned apply not only to trapping but also to life. Although trapping may not be a skill that the students will continue to use after school, the problem solving and critical thinking skills that the students learned from the experience will allow them to be successful in their endeavors post-graduation.