Field of Science

Rain forest field trip

Taking 18 students on an international field trip to study rain forest ecology provides them with a top-notch educational opportunity, but what a hassle! So many details and so little time; it's not if anything will go wrong, but what. And please understand these are really good, and reasonably cooperative, polite, attentive students, although no more twins. Twins are trouble. And we keep adding rules to the list that begins with "no whining or whinging". But the Phactor still remembers his first experience, his first view of rain forest, and he was hooked. So you try to provide the same experiences for your students; that's what we do. And it doesn't hurt escaping to the tropics at a rather dingy, dull time of year. So be nice to the Phactor, and maybe you can go along.

If time and internet connections allow, perhaps a couple of blogs will come straight from the rain forest; otherwise things will be quiet here for the next two weeks.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, please, take me along! My passport is current, and my cholera, hepatitis, and typhoid shots are up-to-date. AND, I am not a twin.

Which rain forest will you visit?

~Shelley

The Phytophactor said...

Well, OK, but only if you have tall rubber boots for the mud & pit vipers. The field trip will be conducted in wet, lowland forest in the NE of Costa Rica, which is where the image was taken.

Anonymous said...

A couple years ago I hiked to the top of Cerro Chirripo in Costa Rica, though not in tall rubber boots (it wasn't the rainy season); however, my greatest feat of derring-do was taking a tiny propeller plane from San Jose to the Osa peninsula. It was a very bumpy flight.

Have a great trip, she said enviously. I look forward to your dispatches.

~Shelley