NativeAmerican PacificIslander Research Experience

Morning Activity: Botany WalkIn the morning NAPIRE students took an botany tour of the plants in the primary forest. Here are some snapshots from the tour.

After the botany walk, students were given an opportunity to experience the highest bits of the tree canopy by scaling up 39-meters above groun on permanent tower structure designed to do tree canopy research as well as collect environmental data.

Cherie scaling up 39-meters of stairs to the tops of the tree canopy.

Afternoon Activity In the afternoon, Dr. Wendy Kuntz delivered a powerful hands-on activity to explore measurements and variation in scientific data. The materials needed include: 10 peanuts, a ruler, and paper. Students were initially asked to describe 1 peanut.

Student annotating their observations of the peanut.

Then, they were asked to give their notes to a friend. Dr. Kuntz mixed the peanuts up on a table, and the friend had to find the peanut. 

NAPIRE students finding their partners peanut.

Dr. Kuntz opened a discussion to students on how to better describe the peanut to make it easier for anyone to find the aforementioned described peanut.

To learn about statistics, Dr. Kuntz asked all the students to measure ten peanuts, the maximum length.

The data was used to learn how to calculate mean, median, mode, standard deviation, and variance.

Our first weekend in Costa Rica, we left at 8am in the morning from La Selva Biological Research Station to the Costa Rica-Panama Border to visit the Bribri Indigenous community in the Talamanca Mountains for the weekend. It is about a 5 hour trek which eventually leads to the coastal highway--stunning views-capes of beaches, agricultural fields, banana herbs and Caribbean life.

Road tripping it to the Bribri Territory (14 June 2014, PC Lelemia Irvine) Upon our arrival, we were greeted by our guide, Rafael Angel Carbraca Selles. He welcomed us to the Bribri Territory. He shared to us some of the names of the mountains around them, and requested us to be mindful of our surroundings as the land is sacred to them.

Bribri Indigenous Territory, view of the mountains We had lunch and a tour of the "Finca Educativa" (Farm Educational Resource). We were served a delicious meal from local providers and the farm itself.

Lunch: rice with corn, plantain, mashed yucca, chicken, steamed squash and vegetables, tomato & cucumber, natural juice beverage

We were traditionally welcomed to the Fina Educativa with a Bribri song that gave thanks to Sibu (their creator), blessed and welcomed us into their land. The open air longhouse that we ate lunch was made from resources in the mountain and with the hands of the community. It is one of two traditional building styles: longhouse, and circular.

Finca Educativa Welcoming in Bribri in the traditional longhouse

The farm began with special funding from CATIE institute as a way to determine the best cultivation varieties of cacoa for the region. The garden is filled with mixed varieties of plants for functional and medicinal purposes. The "finca educativa" served as the first site and model for the community on small-scale cultivation incorporating both traditional and contemporary methods. Cacao holds an important place in the Bribri community relationship to the plant. It is used in their traditional ceremonies as well as medicine as well as their traditional stories. There are more than 5 varieties grown at the finca. After the tour, we help make chocolate from scratch with a Master Chocolate maker. Here's some pictures from the Finca Educativa Visit:

Tsiru, Bribri word for cacao in the family of Esterculiaceae

Mikal and students taste testing the fruit of Cacao

NAPIRE 2014 students learning about Cacao growth process and the deep relationship Bribri have with the plant (June 14, 2014)

Master Chocolate maker sifting Cacao beans. She shares the story of the entire processing of chocolate from picking the beans to consuming the final product (June 14, 2014)

Kirena, NAPIRE participant and member of Navajo Nation, hand churning delicious fresh dark chocolate (June 14, 2014).

NAPIRE 2014 students take a visit to the Acomuita Women's Cooperative Chocolate Farm and Factory (June 14, 2014)

Friday, 13 June 2014 Today, Dr. Karin Gastriech gave an exciting inquiry based workshop on natural history, hypothesis building, and experimental design.

Dr. Gastreich introduces the topic to NAPIRE 2014 cohort that our role as tropical biologist is to be keen observers of nature. We describe the life-cycles and process around. These observations are documented and from these observation we develop hypotheses and experimental designs. Students went outside into the tropical forest to observe everything they saw. They noted other key anecdotal information to accompany their observations which included: time of day, date, location, weather.

Students were broken up into groups to talk about their observations and develop a hypothesis ("A proposed answer to our question(s) of inquiry"-Dr. Karin Gastreich).

Students wrote down a question or questions that they wanted to explored. They developed an experimental design including hypothesis, predictions, and expected outcomes.

Students presented their findings to the group.

At the end of the day, students and staff prepared for their cultural exchange and visit to the Bribri Indigenous Territory in the Talamanca Mountains.

Thursday, 12 June 2014

In the morning, NAPIRE students had a guided walk of the La Selva Rain Forest by Kenneth, our guide. Here are some snapshots of students and staff contributions of the tour.

Students looking into the trees of an iguana. (Photo Credit: Lelemia Irvine, 12-June-2014)

Students and TA with guide Albert in front of the River (Photo Credit: Lelemia Irvine, 12June-2014)

In the afternoon, Dr. Karin Gastreich gave a talk on Biodiversity in Costa Rica. In her talk, she talked about the origins of Costa Rica and gave insights on why would Costa Rica would be a hotspot for the biodiversity.

Wednesday, 11 June 2014 Early Wednesday morning, we left urban San Jose to the Tropical Forest of La Selva Biological Research Station. Our first day at orientation, we were given a welcome talk by Dr. Carlos de la Rosa, the Director of La Selva. He shared to the NAPIRE program the history of La Selva. La Selva is a special place in that it is the only Tropical Biology conservation area in Central America that is a completely preserved watershed from the lowlands to highest peak.

Dr. Carlos de la Selva welcoming NAPIRE students. He shares that our responsibility as scientists is to share the stories of nature to other scientists and most importantly to the greater community at large. He encourages our students to pick up many skills to share nature's story including embracing social media outlets like Facebook like pages, or taking pictures onto Instagram, or making videos for Vimeo or YouTube and many other ways to share the scientific narrative of nature  (Photo Credit: Lelemia Irvine, 11-June-2014).

(Photo Credit: Lelemia Irvine, 11-June-2014) A new feature in the program is our weekly "Stories We Tell" talk story. The purpose of this weekly discussion is to provide a safe place for students to reflect and share their stories of their observations, interactions, and experiences with Costa Rica. Our fist discussion, we all formally introduced each other to the group. In particular, each student and staff were given time to share "who are you?" "who are your people?" "where is your river, mountain, place you call home?". Some students introduced themselves traditionally in their own language and traditions to share a snippet of their life story and how they came to this program.

Bryan Tonga showing to other NAPIRE students where his island home of Pohnpei is on the map (Photo Credit: Lelemia Irvine, 11-June-2014).

After dinner, Teaching Assistants Nicole and Lelemia gave a safety briefing and risk management talk to the NAPIRE students. The purpose is to clearly explain the forest, health and theft dangers that tropical biologist face when working in the tropical forest. One lesson we learned of many included: always were your boots in the La Selva station.

Pura Vida, the "pure life", is a Costa Rican characteristic and expression used in greeting as well as an adjective to describe how someone feels. Pura Vida means more than just "pure life" and is an ethos or way of being that embodies: 'full of life', 'life is good', or 'plenty of life' here in Costa Rica. Throughout our experiences in Costa Rica, it will be common to be greeted by friendly unfamiliar faces with idioms like "Pura Vida!" or "Buen Dia, como esta?". Responding back 'Pura Vida!' is an appropriate and nice blessing to send to the unfamiliar face. It is with great excitement that we formally start and welcome our tenth cohort of Native American and Pacific Islander Research Experience for Students at the Organization of Tropical Studies (OTS) main offices, located in the research hub of the University of Costa Rica in San Jose, Costa Rica.  Students were welcomed by OTS Director of Education, Dr. Pia Paaby and Administrative Assistant, Kattia Mendez. Formal greetings and salutations by the OTS family was given by Dr. Pia Paaby. Dr. Paaby's formal introduction to the students included: "what is OTS", OTS expectations, and guidelines for their 8-week experience.

Dr. Pia Paaby, OTS Director of Education, welcoming and giving an orientation to NAPIRE 2014 students. In a nutshell, the mission of the "Organization of Tropical Studies" is "to provide leadership in education, research, and the responsible use of natural resources in the tropics." OTS was born in 1963 with seven founding members. These scientists were from eight U.S.A. universities agreed to work with their colleagues at the University of Costa Rica in order to strengthen education and scientific research in tropical biology. Today, the organization has grown to over 50 OTS member institutions and partnerships. There are three OTS research Biological stations in Costa Rica: Palo Verde, La Selva, and Las Cruces Biological Stations. The main offices of OTS are housed in San Jose, the capitol of Costa Rica.

10th Cohort of Native American & Pacific Islander Research Experience Students in front of the Organization of Tropical Students main offices in San Jose, Costa Rica (Photo Credit: Lelemia Irvine, 9-Juen-2014) After our visit to the OTS Main Offices, the NAPIRE group visited the Costa Rica National Museum to learn the history of Costa Rica and the Indigenous peoples of Costa Rica.

Some students in front of the National Theater (Photo Credit: Karin Gastreich)

Sunday, June 1, 2014 to Saturday, June 7, 2014

NAPIRE staff arrived the first week of June in Costa Rica to do in country preparation before students' arrival. Our core team of staff includes Dr. Barbara Dugelby (NAPIRE Coordinator); Dr. Karin Gastreich (Co-Coordinator); Nicole Kenote (Teaching Assistant) and Lelemia Irvine (Teaching Assistant). We were so excited to meet the new incoming students! Here are some snapshots of our first week - food, preparing equipment, and meeting to finalize logistics for the great 2014 NAPIRE Program! Oh, and I couldn't make a post about NAPIRE without adding a little shot of nature.

Happy Trails! Barbara

Staff Logistical Meetings (Photo Credit: Karin Gastreich, June-2014)

Teaching Assistants, Nicole & Lelemia (from right to left), are doing course inventory of all materials. (Photo Credit: Barbara Dugelby, June-2014)

There's lots of great food in Costa Rica. Staff eating lunch at a Vegetarian Restaurant (Photo Credit: Barbara Dugelby, June-2014)

Here's a picture of some good food in Costa Rica. Pictured: Tilapia fish; vinegarette salad (greens, green beans, carrots, cucumber, tomato), rice and bananas. (Photo Credit: Barbara Dugelby, June-2014)

Of course, definitely need to include a picture of nature. You're in for an exciting time. (Photo Credit: Barbara, Dugelby)