Rainforests and Reefs

It's really hard to capture what my Fund for Teachers Fellowship gave me both personally and professionally over the last 2 weeks.  Every day when I finished working alongside a researcher in the ocean or in the rainforest I felt like a child who had the best day ever and couldn't wait come home and tell mom and dad.   It relit my passion for science in a way I could not imagine.   When you get to touch science and feel it from it's perspective, you understand connection.  While I was hiking 30 minutes into El Yunque to help do groundwater and debris collection for a canopy study my brain thought about all of the stimulation I was getting from nature.  As I learned plants and history along the way through Monique's team, it allowed me to be present and engulfed in the process.  Being present was a theme everyone talked about.   Speaking with so many great team members from CIROM and their reef restoration efforts helped me remember to believe in myself when everything e

 It's really hard to put into words what it means to be a scientist.  While your world doesn't have an owner's manual, google search engine,  it does have a huge support system.  On my first day, Francisco and Manual told me that their group is a great support system and are friends outside of work.  I didn't realize how tight knit and supportive this group was until I had privilege of working with the team.  On the first day, Manual asked me "what are you doing on Thursday because we are collecting urchins which is a rare event and we would love for you to join us."  After finishing my 3 other lab experiences, I quickly headed over to their tent.  I could hear the sound of music and laughter as I walked down the hill to their station.  Immediately they all exclaimed my name and gave me hugs.  Aleya quickly got me situated and Leysa helped me on my first 2 carpets.  We chatted about teaching, learning and they gave me great advice on places to visit on the isl

  My first day at Isla Mayagues with Francisco and Manual was nothing short of amazing.  When I was little I always dreamed of being a marine biologist and today I got to live out that dream.  They took me out to their field station where coral that are ready for outplanting are put into the ocean to make sure they will survive the outplanting.  We had to use GPS to get to the site because when they put buoys out, the fisherman would destroy the sites.  They are working on educating the fishing and tourism community about their work.  As luck would have it my work focuses on failures and perseverance and the batteries in the GPS died.  Both veteran scientists, went by memory and when we got close they snorkeled to find the site.  We talked about what it is like to spend most of your time failing in research.  They see it as a normal process and talked about how they have to coach the newer students.  Manual said "you're going to fail a lot and its a normal part of the process