2007.04.04: April 4, 2007: Headlines: COS - Paraguay: COS - Costa Rica: Environment: Secondary Education: Towson Times: Paraguay RPCV Susie Creamer takes students on a nine-day eco-tour of the wilds of Costa Rica through a national organization called EcoTeach
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2007.04.04: April 4, 2007: Headlines: COS - Paraguay: COS - Costa Rica: Environment: Secondary Education: Towson Times: Paraguay RPCV Susie Creamer takes students on a nine-day eco-tour of the wilds of Costa Rica through a national organization called EcoTeach
Paraguay RPCV Susie Creamer takes students on a nine-day eco-tour of the wilds of Costa Rica through a national organization called EcoTeach
EcoTeach is a United States- and Costa Rican-based conservation organization that offers education-centered expeditions to various places in Costa Rica, such as organic farms and wildlife habitats such as the turtle station. Creamer believes that hands-on ecological lessons in an exotic locale are a vivid alternative to reading about nature science textbooks. The Hampden resident led another group of St. Paul's students on a similar Costa Rican trip two years ago. From 1999 to 2001, she was involved in ecology-related projects as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay. "What appealed to me about this kind of experience is that it's not a tourist trip," Creamer said. "It's very much a science trip, focusing on culture and ecology." During their nine days in Central America, the students milked cows, chopped and squeezed juice from sugar cane, took long hiking and horseback excursions in the rain forest and got to see howler monkeys, sloths and giant sea turtles in their natural habitats. The girls visited the remote village of an indigenous people called the Bribri, who live in thatched huts with no electricity or running water.
Paraguay RPCV Susie Creamer takes students on a nine-day eco-tour of the wilds of Costa Rica through a national organization called EcoTeach
St. Paul's girls take Costa Rican eco-trip
04/04/07
by bob allen
Caption: St. Paul's School for Girls eighth-grader Alissa Meister, left, seventh-grader Christina Collie, eighth-grader Mary Waesche and seventh-grader Hallie Christe stand by photos from a trip to Costa Rica
It's the big turtle that lingers vividly in the minds of the St. Paul's School for Girls students who took a nine-day eco-tour of the wilds of Costa Rica in mid-March.
"It dug a hole on the beach with its back fins," 13-year-old Towson resident Christina Collie said as her eyes grew wide. "We held it by the back fins and held a plastic bag under it, so when it laid its eggs they dropped in the bag."
Christina was one of 19 seventh- and eighth- graders from the all-girls school to make the trip.
The girls encountered the 6-foot-long leatherback sea turtle late one night at a privately run turtle station on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast. The eggs of the leatherbacks, one of the world's largest and most critically endangered species of sea turtles, are considered a culinary delight. That's the main reason the number of turtles is dwindling.
After Christina and her schoolmates harvested the eggs, they quickly buried them in a protected area where they would be guarded from poachers until they hatch.
The whirlwind adventure was organized by seventh-grade earth science teacher Susie Creamer through a national organization called EcoTeach.
EcoTeach is a United States- and Costa Rican-based conservation organization that offers education-centered expeditions to various places in Costa Rica, such as organic farms and wildlife habitats such as the turtle station.
Creamer believes that hands-on ecological lessons in an exotic locale are a vivid alternative to reading about nature science textbooks.
The Hampden resident led another group of St. Paul's students on a similar Costa Rican trip two years ago. From 1999 to 2001, she was involved in ecology-related projects as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay.
"What appealed to me about this kind of experience is that it's not a tourist trip," Creamer said. "It's very much a science trip, focusing on culture and ecology."
During their nine days in Central America, the students milked cows, chopped and squeezed juice from sugar cane, took long hiking and horseback excursions in the rain forest and got to see howler monkeys, sloths and giant sea turtles in their natural habitats.
The girls visited the remote village of an indigenous people called the Bribri, who live in thatched huts with no electricity or running water.
"One family had a pet pig and its piglets living under their house, which was on stilts," said Hallie Criste, 13, from Timonium. "And there were chickens running around."
"It was kind of amazing to see how they were so happy without any modern conveniences," said Alissa Meister, of Lutherville. "The Bribris taught me to appreciate what I have and all the opportunities that have just been handed to me."
Most of the students came home exhausted but inspired by their sojourn to a part of the world far removed from the creature comforts of the Baltimore County suburbs.
Some have begun applying some of the lessons they learned a world away.
"It made me want to use my resources much more carefully, to help preserve the environment,"Alissa said.
Mary Waesche, an eighth- grader from Timonium, said the trip has caused her to change her lifestyle in a more practical way.
"I had so much exercise on the trip," Mary said. "Here at home I used to not get hardly any exercise. I'd just go home, eat, do my homework and go to bed. But now I try to walk my dog after school, and I try to enjoy nature a little more than I used to."
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Headlines: April, 2007; Peace Corps Paraguay; Directory of Paraguay RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Paraguay RPCVs; Peace Corps Costa Rica; Directory of Costa Rica RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Costa Rica RPCVs; Environment; Secondary Education
When this story was posted in April 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Towson Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Paraguay; COS - Costa Rica; Environment; Secondary Education
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