Finally Made It!

I finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro with fellow teacher Ms. Kathy Clunis from Mission Hill School yesterday morning. On Sunday, I got a surprise phone call stating that our flight to D.C. had been cancelled. After trying every option possible, it became clear that the only way we were going to get to Brazil in the next 5 days was to catch our original flight from D.C. to Rio. Due to February school breaks, there were no seats on any D.C. flights, and our only option was to DRIVE! As fast as we could, we gathered our things, found a one-way rental car, and hit the road. We had fun during the long car ride practicing Portuguese with a language CD. (Gabi and any other Brazilian would have laughed at my pronunciation, I´m sure!)

When we finally got on the flight to Rio, we met 4 other teachers who will be working with us in the Pantanal. With only two days in Rio, we have spent time sightseeing, and I have to say the Portuguese CD really helped! We´ll fly to Campo Grande tomorrow to start our trek to the Pantanal, and will begin training on the research studies by Thursday. Ciao!

Getting Ready for a Great Adventure!

I've been busy preparing for this wonderful trip to help conserve the otters, amphibians, reptiles, and general ecosystem of this special part of the world. The Pantanal is the largest freshwater wetland in the world, and some of its inhabitants are in grave danger of becoming extinct or harmed by human activities such as cattle ranching and tourism. Yes, I will be a tourist, so some of you may say that I am being contradictory. However, I hope that I will leave the Pantanal better than I found it, and use the knowledge I gained to influence students to help conserve places like these as they become the people leading our world.

Our team of ten teachers will be helping Miguel Rico Barroeta and Dr. Ellen Wang's research teams collect data that will help make sure that amphibians and reptiles (otherwise known as herpetofauna - say that three times fast!) and otters keep their home in the Pantanal.

Students, as you read excerpts from the research descriptions and follow my trek to the other side of the equator, I hope you can make connections between how science is done in the real world, and the science experiments and research you have done in your science classes.

Otter Research Description: Otter%20Research%20Description.doc
Amphibian and Reptile Research Description: Amphibian%20and%20Reptile%20Research%20Description.doc