In the next few weeks, five biology students from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania will take a trip far from their usual classrooms in Moore Biology Hall. They will pack their bags and get on a plane to Costa Rica, but not without their professors.<\/p>\n
Terry Master, Ph.D., professor of biology and Thomas LaDuke, Ph.D., associate professor of biology have spent either spring break or summer sessions with the students in their Tropical Ecosystems class since 1995. Six years ago, they were joined by Howard Whidden, Ph.D., professor of biology.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to provide students with international experiences and perspectives that sometimes contrast with those they experience here at home,\u201d Dr. Master said. \u201cCosta Rica is an especially good place to provide such perspectives since it is an exemplary country with regard to education, health care and habitat\/wildlife conservation leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trip to Costa Rica is actually a required part of the students\u2019 course, according to Dr. Master. The course includes lectures at ESU throughout the spring semester, while the nine days in Costa Rica make up the laboratory portion.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of students went on this trip over the years. Some said it changed their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like traveling with three tour guides who can name of every animal that you see,\u201d Stefani Cannon, a graduate student studying biology who was on the trip last year, said. \u201cI know this sounds clich\u00e9, but that trip changed my life\u2014 I spent my childhood dreaming of seeing the plants and animals that thrive in tropical areas and to see the complex ecosystems that exist there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The professors started this trip to provide students with hands-on experience that they would remember for a lifetime. After taking a hard look at student course evaluations, they found that the aspect of the course that students love the most is hands-on field experience providing the opportunity to observe organisms, their behaviors and ecological relationships first hand in a tropical-field setting.<\/p>\n
The impetus for the course derived from a poster that was sent out by the travel agency that Dr. Master was using in 1995 to run natural history tours. A professor at Florida Atlantic University noticed the poster and put the ESU professors in contact with the owner of Estacion Biolgica LaSuerte in Costa Rica, who at the time was starting up and getting that field station established. Dr. LaDuke and Dr. Master were invited to join the faculty teaching there\u2014 the rest is history.<\/p>\n
Two decades later, the professors continue to introduce students, who, according to Dr. Master, for the most part have never been to the tropics, to the luxuriance of living things that characterize the tropics and the culture and friendliness of the Costa Rican people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis trip was the stepping stone for me. I ended up traveling back to Costa Rica and spending two months there to work on my master\u2019s thesis. I would not have done that if it were not for my trip with the Tropical Ecosystems class,\u201d Cannon said. \u201cThese experiences are unforgettable, real and everlasting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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