OTS has a rare opportunity to participate in the formation of research priorities in tropical science for the next decade.   

In 2004, at the annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) in Miami, Florida, in 2004, a report was released on research priorities in tropical biology (Beyond Paradise:  Meeting the Challenges in Tropical Biology in the 21st Century).  This widely acknowledged white paper made a plea for an expanded, interdisciplinary, participatory, and socially relevant research agenda to study and conserve human-impacted as well as pristine tropical ecosystems (Bawa et al., 2004a, 2004b).  

  
Since 2004, climate change has emerged as an immediate peril for tropical biodiversity and ecosystems, and the expansion of biofuel production is a potentially an equally huge threat in the near future. Commercial crop monocultures, invasive species, emerging infectious diseases, and urbanization, have all increased in significance since the 2004 priorities report. Addressing these threats will require cross-disciplinary collaborations between biological and social scientists, as well as other disciplines, which are more clearly targeted at the needs of managers and policy makers. For this we need a new assessment of research priorities in tropical biology. 

2012 AoD Meeting Focus

OTS is poised to take a lead with ATBC in formulating priorities for the next decade. Facilitated workshops at this year's AoD meeting are designed to generate the initial document outlining research priorities of OTS. This document will be conveyed to  the annual meeting of the ATBC Asia-Pacific Chapter in Xishuangbanna, China, the annual meeting of the whole ATBC society in Bonito, Brazil, 19-22 June, and the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) Asian Section meeting in Bangalore, India, August 7-10. The output from these meetings will be the identification of core research themes for the decade ahead. The final output will be a summary, high-profile publication targeted at researchers (especially graduate students and young professionals), funding bodies, and policy makers.

We recognize that times are tough at many academic institutions, but we sincerely hope that our AoD members can join us at our annual meeting, being held at the La Selva Biological Station in March, and make a contribution to the conversation.   This is a rare opportunity for OTS to formulate research priorities in tropical science. Contribute at the annual AoD meeting at La Selva Biological Station, Mar 8-10, 2012.

Meeting website  

Registration Form  

The OTS Enrollment Managment (EM) team is once again on the road seeking highly qualified students for our summer and semester programs. Below you will find the list of schools the OTS EM staff intends to visit during Spring '12.*  If you are a faculty or staff member at one of these institutions, we would welcome your help in assisting us to maximize our time on your campus. We are most interested in doing short presentations/announcements in appropriate classrooms, connecting with relevant faculty or staff, speaking to key student groups, and staffing an information table. We are also open to any suggestions you might offer.  Please contact us at  otsadmissions@duke.edu if you can offer any assistance and don't be surprised if we contact you!  Please know, your efforts would be most appreciated!

New York/Boston

College of Holy Cross, Boston College, Northeastern

Upstate New York

Cornell, Syracuse, SUNY-Purchase, Union, Colgate, Hamilton, Ithaca

Georgia/Tennessee/Kentucky

University of the South, Vanderbilt, Centre College, Morehouse, Clark Atlanta, Tuskegee

Connecticut/Maine/Vermont

Trinity College, Quinnipiac

Virginia/DC/Maryland 

Georgetown, George Washington University, William & Mary, Johns Hopkins, UofVA, University of Richmond, Old Dominion, James Madison, University of Maryland, Goucher, Loyola-MD, Elizabeth City, Hampton, Norfolk State, VA Union, Howard

West Coast

Lewis & Clark, Reed, Santa Clara, Seattle U, Gonzaga, USF, Prescott College, LMU

Texas/Colorado/Nebraska

Trinity, Austin College, Colorado College, Rocky Mountain College, Southwestern, University of Nebraska

Puerto Rico/Florida

UPR Schools, University of Florida, University of Miami

North Carolina/South Carolina

Duke, UNC, Clemson, College of Charleston, Davidson, UNC-Wilmington, Elon, NCSU, Queens College, UNC-Asheville. Wofford, Johnson C. Smith, Livingstone College, Bennett, Fayetteville State, NC A&T, St. Augustine's, Central

Louisiana

Dillard, Xavier, Loyola-NO

Course Directors: Barbara Bentley and Joseph Levine 

July 10-25, 2012

Hands-down, the single most profound professional development experience of my teaching career. Kristen Edwards, Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, NASA

Inquiry in Rainforests is a graduate-level professional development course for middle- and high-school teachers and graduate students in science education, offered through OTS in Costa Rica. By modeling ways to use the process of science as a context for delivering the content of science, this course addresses a fundamental conundrum: learning science by memorizing factual content is pointless, but invoking process without content can be equally meaningless. We utilize the beauty, novelty, and diversity of tropical organisms and ecosystems to inspire true inquiry-based learning and motivate teachers in a rigorous academic setting.

Teachers become field researchers - asking questions, formulating hypotheses based on those questions, designing experiments to test their hypothesis, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting results for peer review. We challenge participants to experience biology, not as a moribund list of facts, but as a living and evolving body of knowledge and collection of methodologies for investigating the natural world. In addition, workshops and assignments engage participants in conceptualizing, shooting, and editing videos for use in teaching, offer suggestions for assigning videos as class projects. OTS fosters a spirit of international cooperation and engagement with local communities, so course participants rub shoulders with researchers and students from around the globe, and with Costa Ricans engaged in education, research, ecotourism, and agriculture.

Field study sites include lowland rain forests at the La Selva OTS field station, recent lava flows undergoing post-volcanic primary succession at Arenal Volcano, and mid- and upper-elevation cloud forests around the Soltis Center of Texas A&M University.

Tuition: $2450 (all expenses except airfare); Competitive scholarships available; information and updates on the  course website; graduate and CE/PD credit available.

My eyes were opened to remarkable environments and new ways to teach my students ... I have always valued hands-on learning, but now I am incorporating more science inquiry in all of my courses. Each day that I teach, it seems like I am incorporating an opportunity for my students to learn from my experiences in Costa Rica. Whether it is a story told, or a lesson incorporating inquiry, Costa Rica has come to my classroom to stay! Amy Braverman Alexander HS, Albany, Ohio

The 2010-11 Annual Report is now available for download on the OTS website. Click here to view/download. Please consider the environment before printing this document.

We have a limited number of hard copies available, if you are interested in receiving a hard copy, please call 919-684-5774.