Ecological Methods (AEcl/Biol 371) is an upper-level course in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Management at Iowa State University. Not simply a techniques course, it integrates topics from lectures and labs such as population and landscape ecology so that students learn the skills needed to identify and solve applied ecological and wildlife management problems. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become an integral component of ecological research and natural resource management. Over the course of three, three-hour lab periods students in 371 use ESRI ArcGIS to create, manipulate, and display geographic data from the Iowa 4-H Center in Boone County.