Teacher Research Experience Blogs

This year we are lucky to have three teachers from Oregon and our Oregon education coordinator Kari come down and help us with the research in Costa Rica. They are here as part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) program called “Research experiences for teachers” (RET). This is a similar program to what is funding Christina and Tyler. We are lucky to have such a great group that is keen to learn and full of new ideas. While the teachers are here they will have three main goals:

1. To learn participate directly in research – The teachers get to help us in the field and see the work we do up close. They get to see many new techniques and to be a part of the actually data collection. The saying goes that “seeing is believing”, but I would go further and say that seeing, touching, smelling and hearing the jungle in which we work is critical in order to truly appreciate this amazing ecosystem. The teachers will be able to share first-hand experience and accounts with their classes back home.

2. Design and implement their own project – The teachers are conducting their own experiment here in the garden to examine nectar removal rates by hummingbirds. We help the teachers by working with them on sampling designs and using our local knowledge.

3. Bring the research to the classroom – While here each of the teachers are blogging daily about their experiences and sharing with all of the classes back in Oregon. You can also follow their blogs here: http://drouhardincostarica.blogspot.com/, http://4thgradegeckos.blogspot.com/, http://garfieldgeckos.edublogs.org/

4. Linking science education efforts in Oregon and Costa Rica – The teachers are visiting classes here in Costa Rica and establishing connections that will enable students from both countries to share their experiences as they participate in the hummingbird projects. The teachers are working with Kari (OSU) and Carla (OTS) to build on each other’s experiences with science outreach.