Group photo overlooking Panama Canal at Gamboa Rainforest

Prior to the trip, GK12 fellows and teachers led hands-on activities related to Panama with middle school students in Lyndhurst and Kearny.  Topics included tropical flora and fauna, history of Panama, animal behavior, evolutionary adaptations, and culture.  Middle school students wrote letters to their peers in Panama and at the Schuyler school, the eighth grade students constructed a scaled rainforest in the school hallway and led elementary students on a tropical tour.  Many of the activities involved other disciplines such as history, language arts, and arts.

Group photo at Colegio Brader School, Panama City

In Panama, the group collected information, stories, and photographs to share with their students back home.  The group rode an aerial tram to a lookout point of the rainforest and Panama Canal, took a night tour to spot nocturnal creatures, went birdwatching in the early morning, and kayaked on the Chagre River and Panama Canal looking for monkeys, sloths, and birds.  At Punta Galeta Research Institute on the Caribbean coast, researchers led the group on a tour of the mangroves.  The group’s experiences culminated in two teleconferences with the middle school students back home—one from the rainforest and the other from a marine institute.  Teachers and graduate students gave lessons on the rainforest and marine ecology, and middle school students in Lyndhurst and Kearny districts had the opportunity to ask questions about the teachers’ and Fellows’ experiences.

A hawks-bill turtle at Punta Galeta Marine Research Institute, associated with the Smithsonian Institute

In addition to the explorations of the rainforest and mangroves, the group visited Colegio Brader School in Panama City.  There, we spoke with teachers, visited classes, and interacted with students.  It was interesting to see that while our curricula are somewhat similar, the science teachers in particular had the extra challenge of adapting the standard curriculum to align with the natural environment of Panama.

This experience was the third international experience of the NSF-funded GK12 program at Montclair State University.  In the first two years, the group visited Beijing, China, where they met researchers, teachers, and graduate students.  The goal of the GK12 international program is to promote international exchange and to add an international context to STEM research and middle school classrooms.

Elementary school students play Ode to Joy at Colegio Brader school, Panama City