Undergraduate Range Management Exam: 1999-2014
Abstract
On the Ground
• The Undergraduate Range Management Exam
(URME) has been administered to undergraduate
students at the Annual Meeting of the Society for
Range Management since 1983, with students
demonstrating their higher order learning skills and
synthesis knowledge of the art and science of
rangeland management.
• The multiple-choice exam is composed of six subject
categories: 1) Range Ecology; 2) Grazing Management;
3) Range Improvements; 4) Range Regions;
5) Range Inventory and Analysis; and 6) Multiple-use
Relationships on Rangelands.
• Topics of changing climate and weather variability
(including extreme events), and the associated
adaptive management strategies employed by land
managers to reduce risk and increase resilience will
be highlighted in future years. Increasing emphasis
on ecosystem restoration (including mechanisms,
processes and pathways), animal grazing behavior,
pyric herbivory (patch burn grazing), soil microorganisms,
greenhouse gases, and human dimensions
should be expected as well.
Keywords: critical thinking, education, rangeland
management, rangeland science, Student Activities
committee, synthesis of knowledge, undergraduate
education, undergraduate students.