The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (WWNFF) and the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) collaborated on a program to provide secondary science teachers with field-oriented learning opportunities and instructional research in Costa Rica. The focus of the institute, global change, covered not only climate change, but also the impact of man on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The Costa Rica Institute took place at three OTS field stations in lowland forest, dry tropical forest, and mid-elevation rain forest areas, where participants studied fragmentation, isolation and restoration of ecosystems in the context of global change. Important concepts that permeated the curriculum at all three sites included correlation versus causation, interdependence, scale, synergistic effects, threshold effects, and the policy implications of a systems view of the natural world.

Following the time-tested model of "50 questions," small groups of teachers designed and implemented research projects related to the central theme at each site. They have designed web pages in order to share their experiences and learning with colleagues back home. As an integral part of each day's activities, participants processed what they had observed and learned in light of how NSES science standards can be defined from the experience, how the day's activities can be translated into local issues, how secondary students can engage in similar research projects, and how through inquiry-based science teaching all students can achieve higher quality learning. At the conclusion of the Institute, participants presented their field projects and reviewed each other's work.