It has
become increasingly difficult for me to keep motivation during my studies when I
am stuck in a stereotypical classroom all day learning via textbook and
lectures. Although my university does an excellent job of providing me with
copious amounts of environmental material, the information becomes dull after a
while. I can only memorize so many classifications of different animals, watch
so many documentaries, and read so many articles before becoming bored. Just
when I thought that maybe I should switch into a different field of study, I
found this program. Fortunately, it has reminded me why I love environmental
science so much. The integrative
approach between the classroom and the field piques my interest as the hands on
approach enriches the experience that much more and brings the information to
life.
We wasted no time getting our hands
dirty. The first day at our first site at the biological station in Las Cruces,
we took a three-hour hike through the garden and the forest. There was a myriad
of cool things to be seen. For instance, I was able to see plenty of butterflies,
leaf cutter ants, and I was even lucky enough to see a snake! There were a lot
of interesting plants as well. I have never been a huge fan of botany, but
these experiences are starting to change my opinion.
At first blush, the forest appears to be a
sea of green. I couldn’t really distinguish one plant from another; everything
just looked like a conglomeration of vines, branches, and leaves all strewn
together. Now, after having a couple classes, I am able to distinguish
different plant families based on leaf shape, whether or not the leaf is “compound”
or “simple”, and the existence of particular leaf parts. Although frustrating
at times, it was fun to correctly identify a plant family. I would like to note
that I am using the term “family” as opposed to “species.” I’ve learned that it
is virtually impossible to accurately identify most plants to the level of
species in Costa Rica. Not only are there too many species that look alike, but
finding an easy field guide to Neotropical plant species is rare. However, it
is possible to identify to the level of family, or even genus. As a refresher for
taxonomic rank, the ordering is as follows: kingdom, phylum, class, order,
family, genus, species. So human for example would be classified in the kingdom
Animalia, phylum Chordata, class Mammalia, order Primates, family Hominidae,
genus Homo, and species H. sapiens.
One other group of organisms that
we have had to classify is insects. Before
heading out in the field, our professor gave us a quick crash course on bug
taxonomy. Then we headed out into the nearby garden and tried to catch as many
bugs as possible with our butterfly nets. When we caught a butterfly, we had to
hold them by their wings, towards their head, and place them inside wax paper
envelops. When other bugs were caught, they were placed inside plastic bags
with a cotton ball doused in a chemical that makes them “sleepy” long enough to
be looked at under a microscope. Overall, I have caught some cool beetles,
several butterflies (one of them being a glass butterfly!), moths, grasshoppers,
ants, bees, and wasps. I never realized how much variation there was in each of
the individual insect families alone. There is still so much more to learn, and
I am so excited to continue this academic adventure.
Duke University
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