My Alvarez idea of creating and testing out this education program prototype was inspired largely by my previous volunteer experience at Refugio del Gavilan, as well as the understanding that in order to achieve conservation goals, the approach must be multifaceted, inclusive, and thorough. In science, many research studies can often be seen as extractive – where researchers visit a place to conduct studies, interact with locals minimally, and then publish their findings and conservation implications in scientific journals, which then are not always disseminated to locals and not always applied in any direct ways by the researchers to uplift the community or provide them with the knowledge or resources to modify practices to be more sustainable. Researchers are not always concerned about or focused on supporting the local communities in the places where their research is conducted. Therein lies the need for scientists interested in community engagement to empower community leaders invested in conservation goals in ways that help provide structural support, skill sets, resources, and training to help them achieve their goals in self-sustaining ways.

During my last visit to Refugio del Gavilán, I helped owner Adrian Gavilanez develop a biodiversity-monitoring program for volunteers to participate in. To provide training opportunities, I invited members of the Foundation for the Conservation of the Tropical Andes (FCAT) to help train him in point-counting methods for avian biodiversity monitoring. In addition, I familiarized him with tailored protocols and field guides for mammals and herps monitoring. With funding from the Changemaker Catalyst Award, I provided a starter pack of field equipment and useful field guide resources he could practice with or that future volunteers could borrow for the duration of their stay. This included two pairs of binoculars, 5 pairs of headlamps, a mammals of the Neotropics field guide/encyclopedia, a photographic guide to birds of Ecuador, the Birds of Ecuador field guide, and a binder with protocols and volunteer information packets. This visit was largely focused on practicing the biodiversity monitoring protocols, and establishing a solid working relationship with the family of Refugio del Gavilán.

My recent visit to Refugio del Gavilán was focused more so on the community-engagement aspect and educational outreach component of the volunteer program we are helping to develop at Refugio del Gavilán. Our team this year primarily consisted of our group leader, PhD candidate Zoe Diaz-Martin, Master’s student Rachel Cook, senior Caitlin McCormick, and myself. Together, we applied for grants, and brainstormed activities for the education outreach program, as well as strategized about how to make this self-sustaining for Adrian Gavilanez, the owner of Refugio del Gavilán.

In preparation to teach at the community school, Escuela Santa Isabel, I created lessons and interactive activities for both environmental education and English as a second language. I assembled an Activities Binder that included both English and Spanish translations of instructions, necessary materials for each activity, and guidelines for level of Spanish fluency, intended audiences, discussion questions, and adaptations for each activity that could be made. The premise behind this binder was it would help provide more program consistency and regulation as well as provide volunteers with a guide and reference.

Communication with individuals in Santa Isabel can be difficult, as cell service is not strong and most households do not have Wifi. Therefore, while volunteers can feasibly communicate with Don Adrian Gavilanez before their arrival about the logistics of getting to Refugio del Gavilán and itinerary details, it still is difficult for them to know what to expect in terms of teaching, without having been there before or communicating with the teacher personally.

Volunteers in the future can use this Activities Binder as a guide and reference for teaching at the school, as it provides organized lesson plans, which they can modify through trial and error. They can also add to the binder new activities that they test out as well. In this way, each volunteer can add to and modify the activities as necessary to accommodate their teaching style and the learning capabilities and interests of the students they are working with. Each iteration of activities and revision to the binder would provide knowledge that future volunteers could build off of based on what worked, what didn’t work and why, and know how to progress from there.

In addition to developing lesson plans and classroom activities, I also purchased school supplies to donate to Escuela Santa Isabel. This included 36 composition notebooks, bilingual children storybooks, and a large classroom set of colored pencils. Before arriving in Ecuador, I reached out two volunteers that stayed at the Refugio del Gavilán to complete their research – one was Rice University graduate, Laura Nicholson completing her Wagoner Fellow project and her partner, Scott Gilb. They were able to visit the classroom and teach English lessons as well as try out some of the environmental activities we sent them. In touching base with them beforehand, I could glean some information about the age of the students, and which activities worked best. I knew going into this experience that community schools generally consisted of students aged 4-13 across 7 grade levels, all instructed by one teacher. Therefore, I tried to come up with activities that were focused more on active learning, group work, engagement, and that were not too complicated thematically. Scott and Laura passed me the contact information for the teacher, and I messaged her to arranged time we could meet and work out a schedule together. Another thing they shared with me that future volunteers also will need to consider is the changes in classroom size that one might observe from one school session to the next. Scott and Laura revealed to me that  since their first trip to Refugio del Gavilan in November, class size had decreased because for various reasons, kids had dropped out, and so they urged me to share the message about the importance of education and conservation in Santa Isabel. In addition, they updated me about what donations they made so I could incorporate them into my lessons. Laura and Scott donated some laptops, and the father of another former volunteer (Salomé Izurieta) also helped Adrian secure desktop computers that the father of Salomé (a previous volunteer) for the school. I wanted to incorporate computer literacy into my lessons, but that did not prove feasible once I arrived because of scheduling and the nature of the classroom dynamic.

After taking a few days to reorganize in Quito, I arrived at Refugio del Gavilán on a Saturday (June 1^st). This first weekend, I reacquainted with the family, we harvested fruit together, and went to Quininde to run errands and sell the harvest. The following Monday, was El Día Niño, a holiday kind of like Mother’s day and Father’s day, but for kids, that is commonly celebrated throughout Latin America. Profesora Denny invited me to come meet the parents, students, and other community members to the school activities. Adrian, Fanny (his wife), and I all went together. After watching some student performances, Denny invited me to speak with everyone and introduce myself, and then I proceeded to participate in some of the games with the students. Among all the games we played, I observed that these students were very close to one another, some students were siblings of one another or nieces and nephews. The older students helped to take care of the younger ones and helped to keep everyone organized in the midst of all the games.

There was one activity that particularly stuck out to me. With the new crayons and colored pencils I donated, Profesora Denny and I asked the students to draw what they wanted the planet and the environment to look like in an ideal world. As I sat with each student and spoke to them about their drawings, I observed what the students valued and could see a glimpse of how they perceive the world around them. Most of them drew their houses, family members, mules, surrounding trees, toucans, monkeys, and fields of cacao or corn. They drew the world they knew and lived in, their experience on a day-to-day basis. One student showed me a snake he drew, cut in half by a machete, and he told me in Spanish, “My cousin got bit on the ankle the other day by a snake, and we killed it because it is dangerous. That’s why around here you always have to wear tall rubber boots”. Other students told me stories about feeding wild monkeys or marsupials and keeping them as pets. This was a bit alarming to me as an ecologist because domesticating wild animals by feeding them and keeping them, causes them to learn domestic behaviors, promotes dependence on humans for food, and can lead to population decline as they leave natural habitat/territories where mates can be found. However, to tackle this issue would require a lot of environmental education, talking with the adults in the community, and raising awareness of the consequences. This is something that I would want to dive into more – maybe connect the community members with Ecuadorian scientists that can help to raise awareness through visitations and seminars, or making informational pamphlets to distribute to households in the community. Other students shared with me the birds they drew and what types of fruit they observed them eating. This reminded me of just how sensitive young kids are to their surroundings, how powerful their observational skills are, how impressionable they can be, and the advantages of living in close proximity to such a diverse ecosystem. It deepened my understanding of the their way of life and also made me more aware that livelihoods are crucial to conservation aims. If deforestation is a necessary way of life for families to grow crops and make a living, then conservation initiatives need to take that into account. Rather than telling them they can’t cut down trees for the sake of biodiversity, their way of life must be acknowledged in order to achieve conservation goals that are self-sustaining and provide alternative sources of income that could offset the cost of not deforesting. Their livelihoods and culture must be considered and work should be centered on their needs, rather than strictly ecological principles. In addition, environmental education is even more crucial in schools so as to promote environmental stewardship, general awareness among kids, and provide a new lens of how they perceive their actions and consequences for the environment.

After the Monday El Día Niño celebrations, Profesora Denny invited me to come to the parent-teacher-reunion held at the school after classes ended, and said we could make a schedule afterwards. That Thursday, I went with Doña Fanny and Don Adrián , and participated in the parent-teacher-reunion, where I learned about all of the other community initiatives and problems they were trying to address. I spoke to the community of what I could do to support their children, and asked them specifically about what they were concerned about, what sorts of academic support they would like. Many of the parents showed great enthusiasm for me teaching the students English. Interestingly, when I mentioned that I had also created some fun, engaging activities and games for environmental education, some parents voiced that they did not want me to take away “class time” to do them, and that perhaps those activities should be done after school. It seem as though the parents wanted more English lessons and saw environmental lessons as extracurricular, even though the curriculum does include “Natural Sciences”. Profesora Denny mentioned that many students need more reading support from parents at home, and advised that all parents spend at least thirty minutes a night reading with the children. The parents also recognized different learning styles and some expressed concerned for the speed at which their kids were able to copy notes down from the board, their attention span, their general understanding of the material. I think attending these reunions were extremely helpful for me to know the best ways that I could support the students by gaining a more holistic perspective of their learning style and also parental concerns.

During this meeting, we also talked about the relationship of Refugio del Gavilán with the school and the benefits for the school that it brings with its volunteers. Even though their daughter, Gabi, graduated from Escuela Santa Isabel already, Adrian and Fanny participate in all the school functions, attend all of the community reunions, and contribute their share of supplies and donations for the school. Volunteers visiting Refugio del Gavilán can help to support the school through education, teaching English, providing donations for the students etc. I also spoke with the parents about potential benefits to the community if they possibly participated in welcoming visitor groups. For example, every two years, FCAT conducts a tropical ecology field course partnered with Tulane University that is based in Ecuador, and which is now going to be mainly based at the new FCAT reserve where lodging accommodations have recently been constructed. FCAT helps to support Refugio del Gavilán by bringing by their visitor groups, and providing training to Adrian in monitoring biodiversity and helping to provide him with the skillset needed to run his eco-lodge programs. One opportunity, that I suggested to the members of Santa Isabel that I met with at the school, was that when a large visitor group comes to Refugio del Gavilán, they could benefit from putting on an event that the visitors can go to, such as a food demonstration at the school of different local/cultural dishes. Visitors can then pay an entrance fee that would include lunch and some hiking activities at the Refugio del Gavilan, and then the profits of this event could reimburse the participants for their monetary investment for ingredients to put on the food demonstrations, and the rest could be split among the school and Refugio del Gavilan. This summer, the FCAT-Tulane Tropical ecology summer field course took place this August. Since I was in Santa Isabel the month of June, I thought we could have enough time to possibly pull something off for a visit by the summer field course in August. My goal was to meet with them regularly at these parent-teacher reunions, and work together to brainstorm what to cook, figure out costs and profit based on number of people coming, how many families would participate, and how to divide up the proceeds. Since many of them are not involved in conservation projects and don’t know much about ecotourism, I thought this would be a good starting point. A few families to get together, put on a event that would provide food and exchange of cultures for the visiting group, get a sample of what eco-tourism ventures may be like for them, and see if this is something they can gradually do more of. Learning through this experience and trial and error, more families might become more interested and as a community, they can build off of something they started together.

I tried to also provide them with some context for larger conservation aims. Their community of Santa Isabel is uniquely situated between FCAT’s newly established reserve and also Bilsa Biological Research Station, which both attract many visitors, scientists, tourists, and student researchers. Since Refugio del Gavilán collaborates with FCAT and is in Santa Isabel, it would be advantageous for the other families in Santa Isabel to take advantage of when visitor groups come to Refugio del Gavilan. Already, the school benefits from when volunteers staying at Refugio del Gavilan volunteer to teach at the school. So when larger groups come and the families in the community can put on an event that visitors can go to, they could gain some economic profit as well that then goes towards supporting the school and education of their kids.

I tried to also provide them with some context for larger conservation aims. Their community of Santa Isabel is uniquely situated between FCAT’s newly established reserve and also Bilsa Biological Research Station, which both attract many visitors, scientists, tourists, and student researchers. Since Refugio del Gavilán collaborates with FCAT and is in Santa Isabel, it would be advantageous for the other families in Santa Isabel to take advantage of when visitor groups come to Refugio del Gavilan. Already, the school benefits from when volunteers staying at Refugio del Gavilan volunteer to teach at the school. So when larger groups come and the families of the community can put on an event that visitors can go to, they could gain some economic profit as well that then goes towards supporting the school and education of their kids.

From this first reunion, everyone seemed enthusiastic and on board, especially Profesora Denny who ran with her ideas, and started brainstorming what types of dishes we could make so that we would satisfy every category of a three-course meal with soup and salad. During our next reunion the following week, each parent representative of each family signed up for a different dish to contribute. We made actual calculations and discussed how to divide up the proceeds. However, from this conversation, dissent arose among the parents, and after several hours of deliberation, no consensus could be reached. We couldn’t finalize any decisions because were still waiting to hear back from the course instructor of the field course whether or not 15 or 20 dollars per person would be feasible given the course budget. I prepared calculations for both scenarios, with payment from approximately thirty visitors and subtraction of the cost of ingredients. When discussing the numbers, community members also could not agree on exactly how to divide up the proceeds among Refugio del Gavilán and the school, some were arguing for a 40- 60 distribution, others a 20- 80, others a 50- 50 distribution, but they couldn’t reach an agreement and couldn’t decide on if it was worth all the investment. In the end this event didn’t happen, but it helped me to realize that these efforts take time. It takes community, discussion, collaboration, and consideration. At the very least, I was able to plant a seed. Profesor Denny is a big proponent of community collaboration, I am hopeful that with her as a prominent community leader for Santa Isabel, she can help to make ripples of change. She definitely is a visionary, and I loved the enthusiasm that she approached every discussion with as well as the motivation she provided for the community members. I kept in touch with her upon my return, to send her different calculations of how to divide up the proceeds, and offered ways of describing the long-term goals and short-term benefits of the community rallying together to put on an event as we described. In the end, she told me that they couldn’t reach an agreement and that they decided to just have the field course visit only Refugio del Gavilan, versus adding on a community event. This outcome made me realize my own limitations as a Changemaker and foreigner in this community because I cannot be the one to resolve disagreements among the community members. There are complexities to community dynamics that I simply am not equipped to resolve for them as a visitor. I felt that the best I could do amidst the disagreements that arose among community members, was just take a step back, realize my own limitations and just be a good listener and offer support in a way that does not antagonize anyone or make it seem that I am taking sides.

TEACHING AT ESCUELA SANTA ISABEL

In regards to my actual teaching experience, it was both rewarding and enjoyable, and definitely felt too short by the end of my stay. Ideally, I would have liked to teach every single day, however due to the professor’s teaching curriculum and scheduling conflicts, I was only able to teach 2 to 3 times a week. The subjects taught in school have to be blocked off; among them are Mathematics, Language and Literature, Social Studies, Natural Sciences, Physical Education, and English. I could only teach a few times a week during blocks of English instruction and Profesora Denny often moved around other subjects in order to fit in larger chunks of English lessons for 3-4 in the mornings.

The class that I taught consisted of about 13 students, one in first grade, four students in second grade, four students in third grade, one student in fourth grade, one student in sixth grade, and two in seventh grade. The books they were using were all issued by the government agency, Ministry of Education of Ecuador. I was extremely dissatisfied with the English books provided by the government because all of them were written completely in English, with not a single word of Spanish, thus, rendering these books not user-friendly at all and inaccessible for teachers and students that do not know English. There were three levels of English: A1. 2 for seventh grade, A1. 1 for grades third thru sixth, and Pre A1. 1 for second grade and first. Profesora Denny actually didn’t even understand some of the instructions in their lesson books because they were all in English, and so I helped to translate the instructions which often included words in Spanish for “Underline”, “Circle”, “Raise your hand” etc. Her teacher manual was also completely useless to her because it, too, was written thoroughly in English. She also expressed that oftentimes, the government will send a shortage of books and uniforms too. She has to go to Quininde, the capital, two hours away, to pick up the deliveries, and then bring them back to the school herself. If there has to be a second shipment due to initial shortage, she has to make that trip again. Also, teaching seven grade levels of students of varying ages is a difficult task.

I tried to base my lesson plans off of the beginning pages of their books, but often times, I realized those pages were often lacking in providing grammatical structures and context. Usually the pages in the English books would introduce topics through dialogue and pictures, but then have no grammar explanations and no structured way of explaining grammar rules. The books frankly are not meant for learners of English as a second language. I generally broke down the content in the schoolbooks by grammar subject and then supplemented that with pertinent vocabulary. I first teach taught them personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, and the conjugations for the verbs of SER and ESTAR, (TO BE). I found that using varied teaching methods was key, using color coding techniques and writing charts on the board was helpful for them to correlate subject pronouns to appropriate verb conjugations, for example. I realized that aside from these workbooks, the school was very limited in learning resources, such as workbooks and handouts, and basic school supplies. While they recently acquired a donation of a desktop computer, they have not had anyone teach them computer literacy and it does not have video-playing software that the teacher can use to show documentaries. When I arrived, she became very excited thinking that I could help her load the CD into the CD drive and bought a movie about wild animals to play for the kids. However, when I loaded it into the computer, I realized that the computer did not have a software program that could play the CD, so it was a bust.
Profesora Denny had a flashdrive of other teaching materials, with cartoon animations. Using my laptop, I opened the files and the students asked to watch the same animation over and over again without getting bored. Their enthusiasm and excitement for watching things on the computer showed such an appreciation for things that I know we take for granted in the American education system.

Time was hugely a limiting factor, as out of the six environmental activities I brought down, I was only able to test one of them, which was on Animal Communication. Of the English activities, which turned out to be the focus of my teaching, I adapted several lessons based on the learning styles and pace of learning of the students, as well as tried to tailor them to be more closely aligned with their school books.

I observed that the students learned very differently, and the most notable was their speed and comprehension. Some students in one grade level might be very quick at copying down notes from the board, whereas others seemed to struggle with each letter they wrote down. There was one student that seemed to have trouble with his vision, because he had to walk up close to the board and point to each letter I was writing to double check that he was writing the correct letter.

I could quickly distinguished which students would need more one-on-one attention, especially students that took longer than their peers to copy down notes or that really got bogged-down in the way each letter looked when they wrote it. Some students were more outspoken than others and asked more questions. The ones who finished quickly would often help explain to their peers a grammar rule or clarify what to write down. I think that for the future, it would be better to write notes on the board, and then instead of losing time waiting for the students to copy everything down, to just provide pre-prepared already printed handouts for them to review at home, and maybe send them home with an short homework assignment to be reviewed the next day in class. One activity that I did with the students was application based. After explaining subject pronouns, possessive pronouns, the conjugations of TO BE (SER), and introducing vocabulary like colors, family members, and classroom items, I asked the students to write a sentence using each subject pronoun and incorporate new vocabulary words. This was a challenging activity for most students. Even though they had just copied down the relevant notes from the board for two class periods, employing them in a sentence was difficult. I believe that while they are copying notes, they were not computing or processing what the notes meant. When asking them questions while teaching to recall the information, they generally did very well, but when applying it on paper and asking them to come up with their own sentences, they struggled a bit more, most likely due to lack of practice and familiarity. I think that in terms of goal setting, I learned that it’s more important to focus on thoroughness and understanding, no matter how much time that requires. Rather than moving quickly to cover a greater number of topics, what the students needed was time to practice one or two things so that they had a solid foundation before moving forward