RU+Fit4Biodiversity

Adrián Fernández:

= Service Learning Experience? = First of all, i didn't go to Monteverde, so I didn't have the same experience as my classmates. However, I had one near to my classmates' experience, in which I planted trees. I went to two planting trips at which I learned that by planting trees, you can learn much more than you think you would! I learned that if we plant trees, we can help many communities at once, and not just one! With these planting trips, my concerns about mother nature have matured. I have learned to consider everything around me. Not only did I learn these things, but I also learned things such as how to plant a tree (which is not as simple as it sounds). During these trips we saw many animals that can't be seen on a normal day of our everyday life. I went from being ordinary to extraordinary, and becoming an expert at planting trees, recognizing animals, and knowing what they like, do, and eat. The planting trips aren't only to help the planet, but yourself too. You help yourself by learning many things!

= How has Understanding Biodiversity Changed Me? = Understanding biodiversity and how we affect it has changed my way of looking at things. For example, before I didn't care about nature, I didn't know anything about most of the species that live in Costa Rica rain forests. Now I know a lot about these animals. It has really changed my way of seeing mother nature.

Gabriel Farhat: =Service Learning Experience?= Earlier this bimester, during the month of April I embarked a trip to the mountainious, tropical, and flourishing region of Monteverde. I really enjoyed the trip, it was a change of routine from our ordinary and constant get up in the morning, go to school, and do an awful amount of homework in the afternoon. At least at my stay in Monteverde we would wake up in the morning, walk to the main campus, in a fresh and sunny day, which would meet us with a delightful breakfast, and we would study at open classrooms that may have enlighted our mood. Monteverde was not just a place to learn about ecology, and biology, but it also became a place in which my work was completely directed to recuperating the environment, to increase animal progression, to understand and apply taxonomy to investigate on plant growth, and several other activities that even had to do with creating an alternative energy source. I believe that by far the most tiring hours of Monteverde were during the community service hours where we had to dig holes through solid mud, chipped with rocks, and pile up logs to rejuvinate trees around the area. Also, gathering herbs in a hunchback position during strong sun hours wasn't exactly the most relaxing service activity we've done, but at the same time particulary these two activities, are the activities that may have instigated a species survival on this planet. At night, was a time to relax to simply appreciate the environment around us look at the stars which exploded in amount, compared to the urban cities we are accustomed to be living in. We were practically in the middle of no where, but taking a pleasant break of our typical rolls back at school, back at San Jose.

=How has Understanding Biodiversity Changed Me?= Understanding biodiversity has changed me, because it has made me more mature and aware of what nature's task is on this planet, which is to live, and keep others living. That is what we humanbeings have been doing eliminating those who have kept us alive, and now I have been able to percieve what abuse we humans have done over ecosystems. To have seen so many types of species, it makes me notice now how the world still has hope and virtues to return to a place of harmony in between humans and the rest of living organisms on the planet, but with hope and with strong minds we can return to becoming the sources that other animals depend on and not the species that infact deteriorate their numbers exponentially. Understanding biodiversity has made me learn more about simple things such as taxonomy, the insect family division, and other aspects that have contributed to our maturity over protecting biodiversity.

= =

Eduardo Lang:


 * Service Learning Experience **

In Monteverde, one of the wonderful activities we had was service learning, where we went out of our repetitive routine and embarked in an adventure. The place was beautiful, and the food delicious. The activities were entertaining, and the service learning experience enriched us. We had to do two different jobs; plant trees, used for live fences, and make soil bags, to plant new trees for reforestation. In the live fence planting, we had to dig through rough terrain, full with rocks and extremely compacted soil. Also, we had to remove the old and rotten trunks of trees that didn’t grow from last year’s community service group. Also we had to purify dirt, moving in back and forth in a funnel- type tool. When we were done with the dirt, we did plastic bags with the dirt we purified. These bags were intended to plant seeds that would eventually become trees. When we were done, we had to cut weeds from the bags that were already growing seeds, and this was the most tiring work. Luckily, when we finished we had a delicious dinner, where we recovered all of the lost nutrients through the day. When night came, the weather became cool, relaxing and comfortable.


 * How has understanding biodiversity changed me? **

"Community service puts me out of myself and lets me see a different part of myself, which is important to me. " //--Anna Spelman ‘10 //

Learning about biodiversity changed me, mostly because I realized many things I didn’t know before. Many animals are endangered, and it is because of our fault. Going to Montverde made me discover all of the problems nature is going through. By knowing this, I have become more aware, and I know my role in this planet. Even though this earth is very bad ambientally, there is still a way back, to change all we have done. I learned how we affect nature, but there is still a way to live in harmony with flora and fauna.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. -Buddha

Ricardo Saborio:

Our service learning experience was unique, it really stood out from any other experience we had involving the community service hours we had to do as a generation. Last years experience was unique but in a different way, we realized the contamination of our rivers and the importance of protecting them. This year's experience really differed from Guacalillo in several ways and the overall community service we did was unlike any other we had taken part in. The overall idea of our trip to Monteverde was to get involved in the plantation of a biological corridor to connect to separate parts of the biological reserve in Monteverde. This corridor would be placed near the UGA campus in the same region, and they would be the ones in charge of mantaining the corridor until it grows. We had to work as a group for four hours on two different days by planting trees on a nearby secondary road, this road marked the path we had to take while planting the trees. We were also involved in the recollection of seeds for the UGA plantation, and then in the cleaning of several plants which were infested with "mala hierba".
 * Service Learning Experience **

Studying biodiversity and learning from it on Monteverde has really changed me. I could have never imagined that our world depended so much on it, and that this plays a crucial role on every ecosystem. Thanks to the trip and my new knowledge about biodiversity I can trully understand why we need to protect our environment, and why we should be fighting to conserve our biodiversity.
 * How has understanding biodiversity changed me? **

Group:


 * How can You Help? Local & International Organizations. Brief description & hyperlink to organization **

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We can help by simply promoting, and influencing certain peolpe to understand the damages that we have produced on biodiversity and nature, and to find solutions that can improve our current situation, we could present propaganda expressing the problems that have been surgig from pollution, hunting, and not taking good care of the environment. i would recommend Greenpeace in order to promote natural benefting campaigns as well as to teach people the sitaution and crisis that is going in between humans and nature. As the name suggests, Greenpeace is an organization that promotes peace over nature, and influences people by publicating propaganda and setting up campaigns to n to stop more environmental damage. [|Green Peace]

These are some of the photos that we re-collected from the participants of our group: media type="flickr" key="80023136%40N04" ARG0="&lang=es-us&format=rss_200" width="500" height="500"