Guest Blog by Dr. Ben Olsen, Cedar Falls Schools, Iowa
Did I just lose control of my classroom??
If someone had walked past my classroom one cool, crisp day in early November of this school year, they may have thought I’d completely lost control of my students. They would have probably first heard kids talking loudly and excitedly well before reaching my door. When looking in, they would have seen several students were up and dancing around. When looking for me, the teacher, they would have found me staring at my computer screen in a mix of disbelief and excitement. Had I really just lost control of my classroom and just given up and resigned to staring at my computer??
NO! In reality, my third-grade students had been combing through camera trap image files from the Amazon, and we had just discovered a jaguar! The excitement was contagious. We had been sifting through image after image of agoutis, pacas, or peccaries – and then the jaguar appeared on the classroom screen as we brought up the next image – and naturally pandemonium ensued!
How did I wind up discovering Jaguars with third graders?
I was fortunate enough to travel to the Amazon in both 2023 and 2024 with the Morpho Institute. In 2023, I attended the Educator Academy in Amazon using an NEA grant. In 2024 I returned to take part in the Amazon Research Initiative for Educators (ARIE) on a Fund for Teachers Fellowship. To say that these experiences were life-changing would be an understatement. Honestly, when I first stepped off the boat in 2023 and made my way up the trail towards the ACTSPeru field station, I looked around in awe and wonder and would have thought that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to be hiking through the Amazon! However, I found myself called back to the jungle the next year and have made it at least a “twice-in-a-lifetime” experience!
Beyond the personal awe of standing in the humid rainforest, I was also blown away by how much I learned about the ecosystem and the people of the Amazon. While attending ARIE, I was able to dig even deeper into understanding the rainforest by working side by side with field researchers, doing real research. I spent the most time studying orchid bees.
opportunities I had while on my two PD Field programs with Morpho.
What an amazing opportunity to sit up on platform two of the ACTSPeru canopy walkway over multiple days, waiting for the bees to come to the attractants. Learning how to prepare the specimens for the San Marcos Museum in Lima was a critical part of the process as well.
It was here, in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon, during the downtime between bee visits and data collection that I really started to hash out ideas for how I could effectively translate my amazing experience into amazing classroom experiences that will pass on the awe of the rainforest, as well as encourage care for the Amazon.
In the time between my two forays into the jungle, I was able to get my rainforest fix by participating in the Morpho Institute’s Camera Trap Project which entailed Morpho partnering with Dr. Brian Griffiths to analyze thousands of images gathered from camera traps set in the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area (MKRCA) as a part of an animal diversity study in the area (funded by OnePlanet and Disney Conservation). After learning more about the process, I spent spare moments through the winter clicking through files, identifying the animals in the images, and recording on a spreadsheet. There were thousands of images, so this was definitely a team effort that involved many of the educators in the Morpho network. I loved to do it because it helped me feel connected to the rainforest again. Occasionally, I’d play the video portion of the files over and over, just listening to the rainforest sounds!
However, during my time up in the rainforest canopy, I determined that I could use this project as a teaching tool. Students could learn about rainforest animals, help out real scientists, and really become aware of an important ecosystem that exists a long way from Iowa.
Classroom connections via animal classification.
I teach gifted education and enrichment classes. So, while working with one of my third-grade teacher teams, the idea was floated for me to teach a group that was working on animal classification. It was a perfect opportunity for me. As the group commenced, we worked on how animals are classified in general terms. Then, I steered the learning into classifying and identifying animals that live specifically in the rainforest. At this point, I introduced the camera trap project to the third graders and we started jumping in. We worked together with an Amazon animal ID field guide nearby, and began moving through the unviewed image files that still remained.
Just the idea that we were looking at images that no one had ever seen blew some of their minds! I was incredibly impressed with how quickly these third graders from Iowa could distinguish between an agouti and a paca, or between a white-lipped peccary and a collared peccary. We’d continue to enter the data, and again, they were so excited to think that they were doing real science.
And that’s when the jaguar popped up on the screen and pandemonium ensued.
Making Global to Local Connections
To top it off, I’ve recently received a grant to purchase trail cameras that will be set up in a natural resources area adjacent to my school. My students and I will work to mimic the Morpho camera trap project and conduct an animal diversity study of our own, using similar protocols to what we followed with the Amazon project.
We’ll bring more students and more grade levels in, exposing them to both the Amazon camera trap project and enlisting more help for our own North Cedar camera trap project. I am confident that this work will help increase awareness and care for the Amazon – and our own, local natural areas.
I know this project is just the beginning of my process of passing on the awe and inspiration I received from my time with Morpho to my students for years to come.
Learn more about the Educator Academy in the Amazon
Learn more about the Amazon Research Initiative for Educators (ARIE)
Explore ARIE field reports on our Field Notes Blog
The Morpho Institute is a 501(c)3 nonprofit and we rely on donors to support teacher scholarships and fellowships. Please donate today to make these experiences possible for more teachers like Ben!