SBT students visit the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

On October 17th, 10 students and one teacher of the Soluciones Biotecnologicas Tropicales (SBT) school visited the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) located in Bocas. A STRI educator provided written materials to the students for animal identification and marine turtle ecology. The students were extremely interested in the marine aquariums and the various marine lifeforms in each. Although they had all seen these creatures before, they had never really had anyone tell them about each creatures special adaptions and symbiotic relationships. Some for the first time realized that sponges were living animals.

All of the students displayed not only a keen interest in the exhibits, but also in other activities of STRI, like recycling. One of the students asked if they could start a recycling program in the Indian village of Salt Creek? The STRI educator volunteered to assist them in getting this started. I am starting a recycling program at the school, so this fits in nicely. By observing the students I saw the interest of several of them to further their knowledge in regards to the ecology and environment of the world they live in. We will now need to foster this to retain the motivation that may lead them to be the environmental leaders of tomorrow with their people.

As their population increases and subsequently the pressures on the environment, they will need to understand the complexity of their world if they are live in it sustainably. Today we made a giant step towards that goal. There is much work to be done.

We also visited the IPAT Bocas museum before we returned to Salt Creek. This was also a first for the students. Although they had been to Bocas many times, they had never visited the museum. They were particularly interested in the full color photographs of local wildlife and the old photos of Bocas town.