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When a Giant Falls: Tracking New Growth in Amazon Tree Fall Gaps
What happens in the rainforest when a giant tree comes crashing down? Through the Amazon Research Initiative for Educators (ARIE), K-12 teachers stepped into the role of field scientists at the Amazon Conservatory of Tropical Studies
Read MoreThe Bug I Shouldn’t Have Killed
One smashed bug. One gasp around the table. What came next became a documentary. by Josh Ault, Journalism Teacher, Spring Woods High School, Houston, TX As an educator, I always…
Read MoreUnderstory Surprises: Insect Richness in a Rainforest Vertical Study
What happens when you look for biodiversity on both the forest floor and in the rainforest canopy? During the Amazon Research Initiative for Educators (ARIE), educators and researchers used simple fruit-baited traps at the Amazon Conservatory of Tropical Studies (ACTS) in Peru to explore …
Read MoreFollowing the Beetles: Discovering Connections Between Plants and Insects in the Amazon
[ARIE 2025] Heliconia species are iconic in the Neotropics, but many remain surprisingly understudied in the Amazon rainforest. One of those is Heliconia juruana. Our research team studied populations in the Napo-Sucusari Biological Reserve near the ACTS Field Station, focusing on how leaf beetles from the Chrysomelidae family interact with these plants.
Read MoreLearning by Doing: Educators Build a Long-Term Orchid Bee Inventory
[ARIE 2025] This summer, teachers became researchers at the ACTS Field Station, continuing a long-term inventory of orchid bee diversity. By documenting species richness and distribution from the forest floor to the canopy, they gathered data that will support future monitoring of environmental change.
Read MoreWhat Makes a Morpho Field Program Exceptional?
What Makes a Morpho Field Program Exceptional? 1. Deep Immersion in a Biodiversity Hotspot Morpho’s professional development programs in the Amazon place you in the heart of one of the…
Read MoreWhat if We Start with AWE? Designing Classrooms for Transformation.
By Rosanna Ruiz, EdD, Morpho Institute, Board President Unlearning to Learn: How Awe Clears the Way for Deeper Learning What if one of the most powerful tools in education isn’t…
Read MoreJaguar spotted by 3rd graders – pandemonium ensues
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…
Read MoreHeliconias & Leaf Beetles: Making the Connection
[ARIE 2024] Teacher researchers examined the relationship between Heliconia plants and leaf beetles in the Napo-Sucusari Biological Reserve, in the Peruvian Amazon. They found that larger Heliconia patches tend to support more beetles, and that Heliconia flowering patterns vary across colonies. These insights add to our understanding of tropical plant-animal interactions and demonstrate the ecological role of Heliconia as a host species of diverse insects in this ecosystem.
Read MoreTiger Beetles on the Move: Teachers Develop New Monitoring Protocol
[ARIE 2024] Our teacher research team conducted the first study of tiger beetles in the Napo-Sucusari Biological Reserve in northeastern Peru. They used mark-recapture methods to estimate their population size, applying a technique called the Lincoln-Petersen Index. They also tagged beetles to track their movements using GPS and looked for mites that attach to them. These mites could help us learn more about how the beetles age and when different sexes and species emerge.
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