University of Alaska Adult Sportfishing Education - 10 Years Later

The physical and psychological benefits of outdoor recreation across the life span are well documented.  Other related research indicates adults also desire to expand their knowledge of the natural world throughout life.  Such has been the demonstrated by the growth of innovative post-secondary weekend outdoor education events throughout North America that meet both of these human development needs.  More specifically, adult sport fishing education programs strive to bring together these two elements into a symbiotic package.  Many of these offerings are focused on fly fishing, which experience enrollment fluctuations largely due to popular culture and prevailing economic conditions.  The author noticed vast variations in North American fly-fishing curriculum as he developed his own collegiate program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in 2002.  He discovered that two foci dominate publicly funded North American adult angler/aquatic education programs:  teaching novice anglers fishing skills and presenting conversation-related topics to more experienced sport fishers.  These ingrained biases aren’t easily attributed to regional sport fishery factors, and are often linked to institutional points of view.  The original UAF offering the author created was limited to a 42-contact hour, one-credit class, very similar to the existing predominating programs.  After two seasons, he asked, "am I offering and teaching adults the fly-fishing topics they want or think they should learn in the post-secondary environment and in a format in which they desire to participate in order for the program to be sustainable?"  To help answer this question, the author created a comprehensive questionnaire and distributed to the public to gauge their fly-fishing educational wants and requirements.  By analyzing the surveys' results, the author created a broad science-based fly-fishing education program that includes alternative offerings such as non-credit weekend workshops, K-12 teacher trainings and field schools.  This poster reviews portions of the survey data analysis, subsequent UAF course development, creative content delivery, teaching effectiveness and program sustainability since 2002.