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Hi. I am a middle school science teacher from Colorado Springs, Colorado. I teach at Carmel Middle School. I have been teaching science in Harrison School District for the past 13 years. Studying in Costa Rica with Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has been one of the greatest experiences of my teaching career. WWNFF joined with The Organization of Tropical Studies, to allow us to study in the tropics at three OTS sites, La Selva, Palo Verde, and Las Cruces. The project was funded in part fromThe National Science Foundation. I have learned so much about the tropical environment and about inquiry learning. E-mail me for more information.
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Central America, including Costa Rica, was formed geologically through both plate tectonics and volcanic action. Mt. Poas is an active volcano with acrid smoke pouring out of the cauldera. |
The Cloud Forest forms at higher elevations up on the slopes of a mountainside, as the temperature, decreases and condensation increases. This is the cloud forest between San Jose and La Selva. |
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Much of the primary rainforest has been cut and converted into agricultural uses. As the human population world wide increases, food and land use pressures force more land to be cleared. We toured a Costa Rican banana plantation where the tour guide spoke of world wide markets, how banana plants put oxygen back into the atmosphere and give the local people employment. He carefully avoided our questions about pesticides, fertilizers, and the statistics of male infertility problems among banana plantation workers. I came away with fare more questions than answers and again realized that any food source we use to feed a world population of close to 6 billion people is going to have significant environmental impacts. |
I have never before seen such bright, beautiful spontaneous smiles on the faces of the children as those we saw in this little village school at Puerto Veijo de Sarapiqui. They peeked shyly around the corners of their doorless, windowless, sometimes roofless classrooms. Then they poured forth to have their pictures taken and see their images in our expensive digital cameras. The Peace Corp volunteer, Kelly Sumner, told us of the illiteracy rates. They only have one class set of books. She told us of the poverty level. I saw no pencils or paper. The children looked beautiful, like children everywhere, smiling, teasing, playing tag. The school only electricity this year. Three delightful little girls ran giggling, holding hands and chattering from camera to camera. Over 50% of the children in this school drop out after 6th grade and few girls finish high school. We took up a collection, promised to send them school supplies and climbed silently, thoughtfully back into our air conditioned bus and drove back into our soft, soft world of over consumption. |
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At each of the three stations, we conducted a research project. At LaSelva, my group compared bromeliads in a forest with a primary canopy intact and in the gaps that are created when a canopy tree falls. Bromeliads are epiphytes, air plants that live on trees and obtain nutrients from leaf debris that falls into their cupcake structure. Tiny organisms, including poison arrow frogs tadpoles live in bromeliads. This photo is a view taken of the rain forest. |
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Our second site was Palo Verde National Park, a tropical dry forest located in the Guanacaste Providence. We took a boat trip down the Tempisque River, where we saw crocodiles, howler monkeys, iguanas, and many species of wetland birds. |
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Howler Monkeys are sedentary, moving slowly through the canopy. They eat leaves and fruits and have strong family units. White Faced Monkeys also live at Palo Verde. They eat a wider variety of food including bird eggs, small animals, insects, and fruits. With a much higher metabolism, White Faced Monkeys have a much higher metabolism, and a greater range, swinging rapidly through the canopy. |
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During our research project at Palo Verde, we compared the biomass and biodiversity between two wetlands marshes. One wetland received water runoff from an adjacent rice field that was heavily treated with fertilizers and pesticides. The other wetland was a tidal marsh. We found the rice marsh had a higher biomass but a much lower biodiversity. |
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