Trinity / Assumption Costa Rica Trip 2023

 First we woke up and had a very familiar breakfast. All the other mornings we had rice and fruit but this time we got pancakes. The next stop was the lab where we cultured escovopsis, transporting parts of the fungi garden into petri dishes. Once we finished hat we went back for lunch where we had cheese burgers and chips. After lunch we went right back to the lab where we started our projects. We started with all the members of the group coming up with multiple ideas on what the project should be about. After a while of thinking we had a coffee break with coffee and hot chocolate. After, we picked back up on making a question. We gathered together and shared our ideas and came up with one for our project. Next, we made the rest of our projects until dinner where we had beef stroganoff. Once again to the lab where we presented our projects. Ours in specific was about comparing the bacteria in the fungal gardens of the Atta-cephatotes and Acromyrmex colonies. After we presented we ...

 Today we asked Elise about her learning experiences with the Seeds of Change program and discovered she developed a life long skill.

 Jason, a rising Jr. at Trinity High School, describes a few things he has learned since working with Dr. Pinto.

 We had a chance to catch up with rising Jr. Eli Dickerson to find out his impressions on the trip... so far.

 Just outside the research facility, a troupe of howler monkeys are hanging around. With the help of a drone, we got an up-close look at what they were doing. Turns out, they were just hanging around.

Curious about what we do at Seeds of Change?  Dr. Adrian Pinto (University of Costa Rica) shows our students techniques and procedures that are not traditionally taught in secondary education. For this experiment, students have already collected leaf cutter ant fungus gardens and created a working colonies in the lab. They will be exploring the growth of escovopsis (a microbe that attacks the leaf cutter fungus gardens) using experimental design. Students will be coming up with a hypothesis, independent and dependent variables, and the positive and negative controls to answer the question: WHERE IS ESCOVOPSIS IN THE ANT COLONY? 

This morning we started out with a fantastic breakfast and amazing smoothie drink. After breakfast we went straight to the lab and learned about different types of ants. we got to explore the thousands of chambers that can be made in Atta ant colonies. We learned about two different types of Atta ants, cephalotes and colombica, and a different type called Acromyrmex. Then we went out into the field and dug up our own colonies in groups. My group, GAJE, was one of the 2 groups to catch a queen ant. She was huge compared to the other ants! While digging up our own colonies we collected the fungi garden, which was where we found the queen. After our break for lunch, we had to meet back up at the main pavilion and hop on the bus to go down to the town. Before getting on the bus to go into the town, Dr. Pinto instructed us to follow him and look at the Acromyrmex nest that was found off the side of the main road at the farm.  After seeing the nest of the other genus of leaf cutter ants ...