Rainforest Field Course for Teachers

http://blip.tv/play/hNNNgpb8AwA

This summer, two members of the Untamed Science crew will be involved in an amazing field course led by biologists Joe Levine and Barbara Bentley. The course is designed to help teachers learn about the nature of science and the fundamental pedagogy of science education. More simply the course aims to teach that science isn’t just about learning facts, but about designing experiments that may or may not work the way you planned them. While the course is being conducted, Untamed Science will be involved in helping teach course participants how to plan and shoot their own science videos for use in the classroom, and how to encourage their students to make and use videos as ways to make learning science fun. We hope the Untamed Science contribution to the course helps to make it the best tropical field course for science teachers.

Who, What, When, Where

When is the course

Course dates are from July 6th to July 21st 2011. For more details on the course dates and a preliminary schedule visit the official course website:

Who Teaches the Course

The course is taught by Dr. Joe Levine and Barbara Bentley. The video portion of the course will be tentatively lead by two Untamed Science team members – crew to be decided later.

Read Joe Levine’s Ecogeek Profile
Read Barbara Bentley’s Ecogeek Profile

The Course: Inquiry and Conservation in the Rainforests

Learn more about Joe Levine, Barbara Bentley and the details of the course from the official web page: Inquiry and Conservation in Rainforests: A Summer Field Course for Teachers

Video from the Course and at La Selva

An Ecogeek Species Video: Tailless Whip Scorpions

Shot in La Selva Costa Rica, this video profiles researcher Eben Gering while he studies amblypigids. Tailless whip scorpions (often called whip spiders), are scientifically referred to as amblypigids because they belong to the order Amblypigi. They have been given the name tailless whip scorpions because of their lack of a tail (telson). In fact, “amblypigid” means “blunt rump”.

Amblypygids are arachnids. Spiders, scorpions, mites, daddy longlegs and other less well-known groups (see diagram below) are their closest living relatives. Read more about them here.

Watch an Ecogeek biome video about Rainforests

We shot this short episode while at a research station in Panama: Barro Colorado Island. Unlike a species profile video, this type of video introduces a general scientific topic. In this case it introduces the general concept of the tropical rainforest. Other biological concepts that would make a great video are forest succession or biodiversity.

http://blip.tv/play/hNNNjeI%2BAA