Culture and Nature: Connections that Count
2009 Exploration Seminar in Costa Rica
THIS PROGRAM IS FULL AND NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS. PLEASE CONSIDER ANOTHER EXPLORATION SEMINAR PROGRAM!
Program Director: John Marzluff (College of Forest Resources)
Facilitator Tom McDonald (Div. of Cardiology)
Dates of Instruction: Sept 9-26, 2009 (and 4 meetings during Spring quarter, TBA)
This course allows students an interdisciplinary experience emphasizing global citizen awareness in the context of a travel abroad experience in the global ecology “hotspot” the Costa Rican rainforest. The course will meet four times during the Spring Quarter in Seattle (dates TBA) to lay the groundwork for the trip. It will then travel to Costa Rica for 18 days (September 9-26).
 The Costa Rica portion of the course will begin with a 10 day stay at an environmental learning center where students will explore concepts relating to the nature and culture of Costa Rica: rural community structure, tropical ecology, medicinal plant use, Costa Rican education, rural justice systems, sustainable farming, reforestation, ecotourism, sustainable building techniques, etc. A highlight of the experience is the opportunity to stay overnight in the home of a local resident, which, together with the other community activities we are involved with allows a connection with the community that students have described as “once in a lifetime.”
Next we travel to Playa Palo Seco to experience lowland rainforest, beach, and mangrove ecosystems. Besides guided hikes of these ecosystems, we will participate in a sea turtle conservation project.
 To end, we will travel to Monteverde to the cloud forest ecosystem where we will take a night hike, tour a sustainable shade-grown coffee plantation, and explore the forest canopy via zip lines or suspension bridge walks.
If we are lucky, along the way, we will be treated to sightings of many of the animals you have come to associate with Costa Rica. Expect to see toucans, macaws, monkeys, sloths, nocturnal mammals, tarantulas, poison dart frogs, snakes and who knows what else.
To complete the course, you will write a short paper summarizing a specific aspect of the experience, participate in all pre-trip meetings and activities during the Costa Rica portion of the trip and complete a research/travel journal.
Students interested in natural science and conservation biology are encouraged to investigate the responses of plants and wildlife to land use during our travels. Students might decide to document the occurence of various hummingbird species along a gradient of urbanization, asking if human settlement affects the abundance of hummingbirds. Alternatively, the influence of agriculture could be investigated by tallying the abundance of scarlet macaws and toucans in forested and agricultural landscapes. An interesting option to build on the coffee theme of the seminar would be to investigate differences in the native plants and birds in industrial versus shade-grown coffee plantations.
 Participants will earn 5 credits of H A&S 261 (I&S/VLPA). Participants should also check with their academic advisors prior to enrolling to determine how these credits may apply to major requirements.
Student costs:
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