Carol Paine has made Baton Rouge, Louisiana, her home since attending Louisiana StateUniversity where she did most of her undergraduate and graduate work.  She has taught middle school science for 25 years and is currently teaching LifeScience at Westdale Middle.  She has served on the Scientific Review Committee for the Louisiana Science and Engineering Fair for the last five years.  She also has been an instructor in the TIMES II project, a program that incorporates technology and math into inquiry based science lessons.  She has received many awards, including Teacher of the Year for her district, and Outstanding Science Teacher.  Carol is married to Arthur Paine, a CPA,  Her daughter, Katie is an attorney and her son, Mike, is in advertising.  Carol was especially interested in being a part of the WWNFF program, because she helped pilot the Biodiversity Counts project of the American Museum of Natural History this past year.  Below, you can follow some of her adventures in Costa Rica.

Palo Verde

Palo Verde allowed me to do a very fascinating and appropriate study.  The marshes in the Palo Verde lagoon are being overtaken by an exotic Typha, a cattail.  Our study sought to see if the invasion of Typha was diminishing the biodiversity in the marsh.  One of the native plants, the water hyacinth,shown to the left, is an exotic that is threatening the marshes of south Louisiana.  For more information see The Marsh of Palo Verde.

La Selva (From a personal journal)

It is wonderful to awaken to the sounds of the rain forest coming alive.  The distant howls of the monkeys and the chirping of the myriad of birds serve as a very special type of alarm clock.  Today we took our first tour of the rain forest.  Jaime, our guide, really knows a lot about this place.  He showed us where to look for a sloth that lives in a tree very near the hanging bridge we will cross several times each day.  Although we didn't spot him at that time, we observed him regularly in future crossings.  We fed guavas to the fish in the river.  They attacked the fruit with a vengance, much like piranha do in a movie.  Ants are undoubtedly the dominant species in the forest.  We could find the trails of the leaf cutter ants and their huge nests in many spots in the forest.  Fortunately, we didn't run into any bullet ants.  They are known to be really nasty critters.  We saw lots of birds, and strained to identify many.  Spotted a kouramundi way up in a rubber tree eating the fruit.  It looks like a bear with a very long snout.  Jaime told us it is a close relative of the racoon.  We came across a family of spider monkeys that started coming towards us throwing things, as if to say "get out of my jungle."  The morpho butterflies are gorgeous as they so gracefully fly right by us.  We say a bridal veil mushroom and spotted some wild peccaries, too.  What diversity!   On our way in, some workmen showed us a hog nosed viper they had found on the roof of the lab!

Our afternoon was spent in the Arthropod lab.  I learned a lot about how to successfully collect and display insects.  Also I was delighted to be shown a website that will help my students classify insects.  These are things I will really be able to use next year with my kids.  Interesting lecture by Jim on ants.  He tends to have a unique perspective on the future of the earth - the ants are in control.  From looking at the ants around here, he may know something the rest of us need to look at very carefully.

After dinner we choose our new topics for research.  I will be researching the biodiversity that exists in the bract fluid of two different species of Heliconia.  You wouldn't believe all the critters that make their home there.

The rains have come as they do so often.  The frogs and crickets are now rejoicing.  It is great to go to sleep listening to the sounds of the rain forest.

To learn more about this lab, click on Heliconia.

La Cusinga - Bahia Ballena de Osa

Our next stop was a delightful resort on the Pacific coast.  Here we explored the waterfalls and the magnificent beach.  One day of rest and relaxation was much appreciated, but we found ourselves studying lots of fascinating features of yet another ecosystem.

Las Cruces

The Wilson Botannical Gardens are a real highlight of this area so near the border of Panama.  Like many other areas of Costa Rica, it was at one time all rain forest.  At this site, my team decided to study the abiotic differences between an old growth forest, an area that has been reforested, and a pasture.  To see the significant differences we found, click on Dirt.

My experiences in Costa Rica exceeded my wildest dreams.  Many thanks to the wonderful people of OTS and NSF, along with the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, who made all of this possible.    As a teacher, it is impossible to measure the myriad of things I learned this summer and plan to share with the hundreds of students I will teach in the future.  If you would like to learn more about this fantastic program, it is one of my favorite subjects.  You can contact me at cpaine@bellsouth.net.