Posted 1:54 am Friday, August 14, 2009
All Saints Students Get Hands-On Experience In Costa Rica
EDITOR'S NOTE: Carol Lee is a science teacher at All Saints Episcopal School in Tyler. She and a group of fifth- and sixth-grade students from All Saints and escorts took part in a study trip July 9-19 in Costa Rica. She offers a first-person account of what happened.
By CAROL LEE
Tyler Morning Telegraph
Tyler Morning Telegraph
All Saints Episcopal School fifth- and sixth- graders recently returned from an 11-day environmental education trip to Costa Rica. While there, we took school supplies to a school and enjoyed dances and songs symbolizing Costa Rican heritage by the students.
We took part in a leatherback sea turtle preservation project at Estacion Las Tortugas along the Caribbean Coast. At night we took four-hour shifts patrolling the beach in search of nesting sea turtles and hatchlings. We participated in measuring and weighing the hatchlings, then releasing them into the ocean. Leatherback sea turtles are an endangered species due to poaching and net fishing.
Poaching along the Caribbean has decreased dramatically since this project began, but sea turtles must face net fishing obstacles once they make it to the ocean.
We made farm visits in the northern lowlands near Pital where we took a raft trip on Class II and III rapids down the Sarapiqui River and stayed with local farm families. We planted more than 200 trees in a reforestation effort to connect the green belt from national parks in the United States to Costa Rica. This project helps in aiding bird migration.
PREPARING SOIL: Carlin Cherry and Kyle Eli prepare a plot for planting ginger root by mixing manure with soil.
We stayed in Fortuna at the base of the Arenal Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world and hiked on the lava beds in the Volcano National Park. We visited Don Juan's organic farm where the students learned how to prepare gardens for planting by mixing manure with the soil. They planted ginger, pulled yucca, milked cows, and prepared their own food.
Rincon de la Vieja is often referred to as Costa Rica's Yellowstone Park and is one of the largest and last remaining tropical dry forests in the northeastern part of Costa Rica. We hiked the trails in the national park seeing the vast variety of wildlife and insect species, ziplined through the canopy, and then soaked in the thermal pools after taking a mud bath.
The students came home with a new understanding for the kind of commitment it takes to preserve wildlife, how to live without electricity, and how to grow their own food and prepare it. It was an eye-opening experience for students and parents alike.
