Hands-on Research in Costa Rica

In June, several upper school students traveled to Costa Rica with the Seeds of Change program for a unique opportunity to do hands-on research deep in the jungle.

Last week, we sat down with two rising seniors, Eddie Hanson and Addie Kinley, and Mrs. Zweber, who chaperoned the trip, to hear about their experience.

We covered a lot of topics in just 30 minutes - from what their research experiments were about, to the fun activities (like ziplining!), what the housing and environment were like, and what surprised them the most.

Whether you’re interested in a future Seeds of Change trip or want to hear about their experience, this episode is a can’t-miss!

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:00

So we're talking about Seeds of Change and your trip to Costa Rica, Mrs. Zweber, could you talk a little bit about what Seeds of Change is?

Speaker 4 0:09

Yes, so we are one of the few high schools that's invited to participate in the Seeds of Change program, which is a science research trip for high school students. And the man who started the Seeds of Change program, John Dolman, he was the lead engineer for the International Space Station.

Speaker 3 0:30

Cool.

Speaker 4 0:30

So he is quite the scientist. Yeah. And he's from Minnesota. And his work eventually led him to studying antibiotic resistance. And he, through his uh decades of work and research, had he's come to truly believe that the solution for antibiotic resistance is going to be found by our youngest and brightest minds. Okay. And so he wants to give high schoolers the chance to do real research, finding uh solutions or at least studying antibiotics or the bacteria in the jungle, and he believes that they will be the ones who will discover the next strain or um find some solution to the antibiotic resistance. Okay. And with that, he designed this program because I don't exactly remember how his work led him to Costa Rica, but this is an extremely biodiverse area. This region is set up in a volcanic area, in the rainforest, in the cloud forest, and has more biodiversity than the Galapagos Islands.

Speaker 3 1:47

Wow.

Speaker 4 1:47

So it's really an incredible setting. And he built out a research lab and he brings in PhD scientists from the university who are trained to work with students in a really classical way. And so these scientists are guiding the students and provoking, I guess, the right research techniques and the right process to bring them through during this trip, really PhD level research. And uh it's it's remarkable to see it in action, and uh, and it's it's such an opportunity because very few high schoolers, very few high schools, yeah, high school in general.

Speaker 2 2:33

This is like stuff you'd see in college or grad school. I mean, I I never had an opportunity like like this in high school, so this is that's pretty cool, right?

Speaker 4 2:41

And it's a special invitation to Liberty. So this is a partnership that we have with John Dolman with Seeds of Change, and we're we're very fortunate to be able to offer it.

Speaker 2 2:51

Oh, that's amazing. Okay, so Addie and Eddie, you guys are rising seniors at Liberty. Almost there. And you guys went on the trip. Can you talk a little bit about just the actual research portion? Like it's if someone knew nothing about what to expect with that. What what what was that like?

Speaker 3:11

Yeah, for me going into it, I like, and then once like I was like, oh yeah, you know, do a little project type thing, but well, when we actually got there, I was like, this is this is a lot more work than I expected. But it was good though. It was actually lots of fun. We made random groups. Um we got to name our own, like our teams, the special names of our team was uh the Minnesotans. Um very creative there. Very original. And but we were actually one of the um fewer groups that were all from Minnesota, okay. Or at least um, but yeah, but that was really cool. The research um itself, we did our experiment on how fast ants and how well ants rebuild their colonies after like their fungus gardens after they've been destroyed. Okay. Um, but you design your own experiment, so they kind of just teach you a little bit about ants and about basic techniques in the lab, and then they say, Okay, there you go. Just have at it and you'll design your own experiments. That's cool.

Speaker 2 4:11

I mean, again, like how often do you get to do that? Yeah. To actually like, here's all this state-of-the-art like techniques and everything, just go at it in Costa Rica, you know. Like, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 4:22

And the cool thing too is is they answer some questions, but it's not like they're they're holding your hand. Yeah, you and you know, like we had to go out and collect some things from the wild, some ants, and so of course they drove us around and stuff. But um, do it on your own, and we and that's a great question. I was all by ourselves, yeah. Yeah. Working with these uh, you know, PhD um you know scientists was really incredible. Yeah.

Speaker 2 4:47

Yeah, they need to add, yeah.

Speaker 1 4:49

Yeah, so our group, uh, we were called the bullet ants are very scary. Um, and we studied uh bacteria and then fungus, and then how they're different between the different cast nights. So there's like the worker and then the queen, and there's like the little workers, and so we just studied the differences there. Um and it was a lot of work, and it was especially the time constraint we had, we only had a couple days to kind of put this experiment together and get it running, and since we had to like wait for ours to grow, we had to get everything in really quickly, and so um it was a learning experience in science as much as it was in leadership and organization, that's a great thing. And I think that was um really important as well. Yeah, but um yeah, it was really cool to learn from these scientists like how they um did some of these techniques and how they um they studied these ants and everything they knew about it, and kind of pour some of that knowledge into us as well, and I think that was that was super cool as well. Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 4 5:43

And one thing that we maybe didn't mention, there were other high schools present there with us, so these groups were not exclusively liberty, it was a mix of kids from different high schools, which was nice, yeah, and maybe challenging and also maybe really fun, and and so the program does a good job of balancing putting the kids to work and really pushing them in the lab, and then also giving them the release and the fun and the excursions, yeah.

Speaker 6:17

Yeah, it was a patience bullet for sure, at least for me, at least for me because mind you, this building where in the lab, there's no AC. I mean, it's almost completely off-grid. I mean, they have running water for the bathroom and stuff, but like, and they have electricity, but there's kind of kind of kind of power did go out a few times, yeah, but um I mean it's hot, like it's 90 degrees humid. I mean, you know, you just had the windows open and like work doing work, you know, doing like school work and those uh temperatures, you know, it's it's a really a patience builder, not just by yourself, you're working with a team too, you know. So it was um it was it was good work also, not just science, teamwork and and patience building and stuff like that too, but um truly a good opportunity, yes.

Speaker 2 7:06

So the location, so we say there's there's kind kind of running water, but it's no AC. How how remote was it? Do you feel like you're you're out in the jungle? Yeah, not much. Okay.

Speaker 1 7:18

The research lab, when you get there, and like there's like this big balcony, and you can look out, it's literally just rainforced. Wow. As far as you can see. That's there's like no towns, no lights. You can see sometimes see lights up bright, but like it's just completely rainforced, and you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 7:34

Well, I know where that that lab is is like it's kind of like on the edge of like civilization in that area because you kind of have the town, it the town's kind of spread out. There's like farms everywhere and stuff, and some of the roads have lights, lights if you can call them that, and they're like spaced out and they're not very bright. But yeah, this this lab is just kind of on the edge of all that. So, like one side you can kind of see, oh look, there's a farm down there, and then it's like just jungle just for miles. Um yeah, very, very remote, lots of bugs. I I hate spikes.

Speaker 4 8:06

So, so to describe where we were a little bit, we we traveled Minnesota to Costa Rica was just one layover. Yep, and then we were from the airport, we were collected in a bus and we were treated to dinner, which was very nice, and very nice. And it was kind of our thing. The first dinner was wonderful. And and then back to the bus, and it was we kind of meandered two and a half hours. It was kind of a jungle.

Speaker 8:51

It's been 20 minutes, it's been 20 minutes, and I thought we were being serious.

Speaker 4 9:10

And um, so we we arrived at this this ranch, and the ranch hosts us and also has the lab up on the premises, but up this um trail, I guess, and there's you left paved roads long ago. Yeah, so we're we're out in the middle of nowhere, but within its own experience that we're on the ranch, we are hosted by the ranch, we're fed at the ranch, we're staying in these cabins. Um, it is all open air, it's pretty rustic, but the lodgings were nice. I mean, we had good cabins that just have screens on the windows, there's no glass. Yeah, and even in the restroom, it's like an open screen wall. Okay, yeah, and so yes, some bugs would get it, and there were frogs and yeah.

Speaker 10:05

That first night kind of taking a shower and then just kind of being exposed to the entire jungle was a little bit weird.

Speaker 4 10:12

But there's enough snakes back there that nobody was ever walking by.

Speaker 10:15

Yeah.

Speaker 4 10:17

Everybody had to stay on marked trails with knee-high rubber boots. The the camp is very cautious, yeah, understandably, so there are a lot of rules for the kids' safety. Yeah. And but within it, you know, it was they did a good job of keeping everybody safe, giving us that rustic experience. I think it pushed kids outside their comfort zone enough, being that it was adventurous and it's travel and it's foreign, but it was still not too much for any of the kids. It was really nice. That's good. That's a good thing.

Speaker 10:50

I didn't really send it a little while, which is probably a good thing.

Speaker 1 10:54

I saw that one at the cooking class. Oh, yeah, that there was a big rat snake.

Speaker 10:57

That was that was cool.

Speaker 1 10:58

We saw a rat snake on the road, but it was like 11 o'clock and we were tired and we were scared, so we thought it was venomous. Good assumption. Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:08

Sounds good to assume and always space. Yeah. Okay. What about some of your activities that you guys did? Tell me about them. What did you do? What was your favorite?

Speaker 11:19

Oh man, my favorite activity. There was just so much. Zip lining probably was my favorite. I've never done that. You just like go through the jungle? I mean, how we're gonna go. Oh, yeah, you're like pretty much. You're like 200 feet in the air too. Oh my gosh. Or close to that, probably 100. You know, you're high up there. Yeah, you're high up, and I mean I typically scattered heights, but with the zip lining, it was fun, so like I didn't really care. So like but that was probably my favorite. And um also the horseback riding and then the waterfall hike. We haven't even talked about the beach yet.

Speaker 1 11:54

Yeah, right. I mean the weather, the weather kind of was bad, but like it was lightning when we were um swimming.

Speaker 12:03

But that was like the weirdest thing though, because like half the beach was like lightning and like scary, and then it was like a beautiful sunset on one side. Yeah, yeah. But like that was that was incredible.

Speaker 4 12:14

I will say the excursions are partly what drew some of the students to even go on the trip. And even if science isn't your number one, if everybody had a reason to get something out of the science experience, and if excursions were maybe pushing you past uh I'm afraid of your try those or whatever, it was never too much for anybody, and they did such a wonderful job with the activities, how they baked it into our schedule, it was way too much fun. We had a great time. It was um the horseback riding was through the volcanoes, so you could actually see um Nicaragua from that that one peak, and it was through this forest area and over these pastures, and really nice area.

Speaker 13:05

My horse was a bad horse.

Speaker 1 13:07

My horse kind of was too.

Speaker 13:10

Her name was Clinky, and she was like she was like this paint kind of horse. I don't know if they have a paint style, but like she that's what she looked like, that's the best way to describe it. And she was like she was very disobedient, she did not listen to me. But but we ended on good terms, so that's all that matters. But the horses, it's weird how they walk downhill, especially some of the trails are like it's a cobblestone road almost, but not like it's like a trail, and it's like uneven, rocky, whatever, and they're just like they do like this weird slide setting. They have to like slide down where it feels like they're about to slip and fall, but that's how they walk.

Speaker 4 13:50

And it's a rainforest, so it's muddy, so it's slippery, so the horses have to they'll slide and catch on a rock, and then slide and catch on a rock, and yeah.

Speaker 14:00

A little bit bumpy there for me. I'll show up and now get whiplash, and then you know, it's all good. But funny story, remember when we were crossing the river, and then like I was right behind the guide, and Clinky bent down and drank some water, and I was like, Oh, you know, whatever, that's fine. You know, good girl, you can drink some water, you've been working hard, right? So I mean, I know I'm not the lightest person in the world to carry it around on your back. So, like, uh, anyways, and the guy looks back and starts yelling at me in Spanish. I'm like, okay, well, what like I and then and then Mrs. Vaber was behind me, she says, she's saying, Don't drink the water, don't drink the water, and then and then I remember like Clinky, no, and Clinky didn't want to stop drinking. Like, I couldn't get her to stop, and then she finally had enough and she was stubborn. But I think the guy was mad at me for that, but well, trail horses. I can't control I was surprised how strong she was. She was an impressive animal. I mean, I that was my like my third time ever riding a horse and cool animals for sure.

Speaker 4 15:00

It was really fun with the maybe one of my favorite excursions. When we were hiking up to the waterfall, there was an area to swim at the at the base of this waterfall, kind of a natural pool, and it was a little bit sulfuric because of the volcanic activity, so the water smelled a little sulfury and stun your eyes a little bit, but it was it was such a beautiful escape. It looked like this, you know, paradise oasis kind of a setting, and we just swam and the kids played. We played chicken, and they tried to stand under the waterfall while it was beating down on them. It was so beautiful, and that's one thing that we we prayed for the kids before leaving for the trip. It was we're going to a place on this planet where God's magnificence is on display. I mean, we can see his handiwork in all creation, and all creation sings his praises. And so when you go to these a setting like the jungle, and you see these exotic birds, and you hear them calling, and it's like sounds you've never heard before, and wild giant cicadas that are bright blue that I never imagined, but God did. And there was nothing to it, it was one of those like free experiences.

Speaker 16:35

It was like something out of those Our Planet documentaries. Yeah. Or how about uh um oh, also really cool the amount of biodiversity. Remember when the guy was like, Oh yeah, that's the first time I've ever seen this bug. Yes, like he's like a native, like he's like, Oh, I mean, there's just so many different kinds of bugs and stuff. He's like, Oh yeah, that's the first time I've seen that one. That's nursing guessings, yeah. It's crazy.

Speaker 4 17:00

So we got to go on a night hike. Apparently, there was an earthquake during that time too, but we didn't feel it. They felt it up at the lab. Yeah. Oh, you know that more common. Yes, earthquakes are very common down there, but they're not typically that noticeable yet. So they felt it up at the lab, and we did that on our hike. And um we did also where this ranch is located, is right in this tiny, tiny village. Most of the people in that village are actually employed by the ranch as gardeners and cooks and um housekeeping and other types of staff, and so the connection with the village is really a wonderful partnership. And we spent time in the village interacting with the locals and um going to their convenience store, going to their homes, taking a cooking class, and uh that was a highlight.

Speaker 17:56

Um everyone was welcoming except Rosita, the parrot. A parrot, not a person, a parrot.

Speaker 2 18:02

She was very yeah, everyone was welcoming there except for she just a parrot that's out and about, or she's a pet.

Speaker 18:10

Everyone else, like everyone else was she just wasn't cool with me. Like, I don't know why. She just would pull away and bite at me. Yeah. Besides Rosita, that's the one thing because I was surprised how like welcoming everyone was and like how friendly, you know.

Speaker 2 18:29

Was it mostly Spanish speaking? How how were you able to like navigate it with that? Is that difficult?

Speaker 18:36

I personally was impressed with how many people spoke English to the point, you know, of course, where I was able to understand stuff. Um I mean, I don't know. Like I I I was impressed. I thought it would be way less emotional English speaking happened down there, but um yeah.

Speaker 2 18:56

So if you're someone who is not fluent in Spanish and you're considering going on this trip, oh yeah, you don't even I would say you don't even know you know Spanish, because I mean uh we had Mrs.

Speaker 4 19:08

Labor too, so there was quite a bit of translating happening, so on certain hikes with certain guides or that village tour the if you were with the first group, the guy that was in the pavilion talking about the village history. There was plenty of moments or in the cooking class at the ladies' house, so there were times where translation was necessary during travel with certain staff that was helpful. But the kids did a really good job with using what they had, and especially at that one time we went to a restaurant or um talking to the bus driver, they knew enough of the simple formalities and the please and thank you that I was very pleased at the convenience store too, checking out kids were paying how much does this cost, and yeah, so the culture is very darling, and Central American culture is this was a really great example to the students of what the essence of uh of Central America and their values and the kindness and welcome to the other.

Speaker 20:24

I think some people don't even realize too when you're down there, like in that part of speaking Spanish around, like how fast you take it up and you can start to understand what people are saying. Just by listening and watching and stuff like that, like um and like interacting with people, like I'm surprised how fast I was a little like because I was a little bit rusty for Spanish and um, but I was able to kind of pick up what people were trying to say to me pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 20:50

Yeah, and I didn't take Spanish. So I'm thinking you have too much spoken in a word of Spanish in like seven years, but um even I was able to pick up like basic phrases and stuff, and I had some another girl that was in my cabin from a Monticello, and she spoke a lot of Spanish, she was in Spanish for it, and so she was really good at speaking and translating and yeah, so awesome. What was the food like?

Speaker 3 21:13

Oh my god, rice and beans. Rice and beans.

Speaker 21:20

Our breakfast every single morning, I think except for like one day we had pancakes. Yes, we literally had rice, beans, eggs, and toast. Every single day for 10 days. I'm not even getting you.

Speaker 1 21:31

It's good. I loved it. I liked it.

Speaker 2 21:33

I like it too, but by the time we got to make it like a little more variety.

Speaker 4 21:37

There was one student in particular that I remember on day three, he asked, wait, Mrs. Waiver, we're standing in line for lunch. And he's like, What do you think for lunch? And I'm like, rice and beans.

Speaker 21:49

We did rice and beans with like literally every meal, which I don't really have a problem with, but like come like day 10, like I was starting to get a little bit like tired of the scramble edge. No offense.

Speaker 2 22:01

Food's different down there. Like it's for breakfast.

Speaker 22:05

I like it. There's a spectrum of what I eat every single day, just like in my normal life. And so when I started having the same thing every day, I was like, I was like, yeah, this is this is different. And I was surprised with the rice and meats, but it was good. I'm not gonna lie. It was delicious.

Speaker 4 22:20

And the fruit was so fresh.

Speaker 1 22:22

They had fresh fruit juice every day juice today. Every meal. Um there were all different kinds of juice. There was like a watermelon, it was like, I don't know, was it like passion fruit, mango, kiwi juice, whava, star fruit. It was so good, and it was like fresh every day. And then like the they had like chicken and sometimes pork, and it was so well, like it was very flavorful and fresh and delicious. It was really good.

Speaker 3 22:47

Yeah.

Speaker 22:48

The best meal that I had by far done there's one of one to the cooking class, and I don't remember her name, but whatever her name was that was running in the thing. I don't know.

Speaker 4 22:57

I'm sure I have it in my notes. I forgot her name. Yeah.

Speaker 23:00

But man, she man, that was like the best food I've that's like top ten meals all time. So what did they make? They had it was it was chicken and rice, but it wasn't just any chicken and rice.

Speaker 1 23:11

Like it's like the best chicken recipe.

Speaker 23:14

I don't even know, like, I don't even know what she did to it, but like they sprinkled some magic fairy stuff. It was so good. So so good. And the fried plantains, I arguably like I like those better than the potato chips. Like, I mean, I guess I'm not a big potato chip person, but like they were so good. Oh man, they were you just like they were smashed and then like fried.

Speaker 1 23:36

So stunning.

Speaker 23:37

And then they salt just like literally just sea salt on them, and it's just like so addicting, it was just so good.

Speaker 1 23:42

And then we made um fresh tortillas, and those were good with like the the rice and stuff.

Speaker 4 23:50

That was a group effort, so everybody pitched in and went into the kitchen and shifts to work different stations, and by the end of it, we all ate together. Aw, I love that. It was wonderful, and it was a good partnership with the village itself because this feeds back into um this uh healthy dynamic, healthy relationship between the village and this ranch. Yeah. I don't think we mentioned that the ranch is also a cacao plantation.

Speaker 3 24:18

No, and chocolates. Oh my god.

Speaker 4 24:22

Um they make chocolate, they make chocolate like start to finish all right, and so we were pretty spoiled.

Speaker 2 24:33

Yeah, oh my goodness.

Speaker 24:35

I still have mine at home. I haven't eaten all of it yet. Okay, we were able to order chocolate and bring it home, and it is the best chocolate in the whole wide world. And if anyone tries to argue otherwise, you are wrong. Sure.

Speaker 4 24:49

It's wonderful, yeah. It's so good. Yes, we were spoiled with the coffee as well, it's all grown there. Oh, yeah, and there was just a lot of beauty in how they set up the program to be collaborative with other aspects. There are women from the village who raise butterflies and they use them for research, they also make money off of them for different uh uses, I guess, people who order these butterflies from all over the world because they're very rare. And so we got to be a part of that as well. And there's just many, many facets to this experience, and I loved, I do believe that high schoolers should travel if they have the opportunity. Do a school trip if you can, yeah, and this one totally was above and beyond my expectations. It was a nice accessible way to get kids out of the country, it was still educational, it was a long trip, it's 10 days, yeah. It's a decent amount of time, and you're really you're living in a different realm because you're so remote, and it it was very, very adventurous, but you know, it was well suited for the students.

Speaker 26:05

And that's the thing for me too, like my personal experience like down there is like going down there. Like I've never been out of the country, stayed in the uh before that, I'd stayed in the US my whole life, and I've you know been to other states and stuff, but like going down there, just how different the culture was, and just how different people's lifestyles were, how they lived their life, how they made money, how what their houses were like, you know, just literally every aspect of life was just so uh I guess foreign, I guess you could say like it was just so different compared to my lifestyle and my life that I lived back here. And it was truly eye-opening, and I you know, it was crazy, you know, just to see all that. And um yeah, I mean, just yeah, for me that was definitely one of the most like crazy parts was seeing how different it was, people's houses and you know, people's jobs and things like that. It was just crazy.

Speaker 2 27:08

Last question if someone's thinking about going on this trip, would you tell them to do it?

Speaker 1 27:15

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was so beneficial, both for the science and also just for the culture, and then I also got to know my classmates better and meet people from other schools. Um, it's just worth it on in a lot of different regards. So I would say yeah, definitely go.

Speaker 27:30

Especially if you're thinking about going into science, science or some type of research field could be anything. Like, and even if you aren't thinking about doing that, like it's it's still a good opportunity. Um colleges or you know, jobs and and stuff will love this kind of thing.

Speaker 2 27:50

Like that leadership skills you were talking about, too, even if it's if it's not science, like you said, transferable skills by far. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 27:57

I mean this is this is it's truly valuable experience and like you it it doesn't get much better. Like you're not to mention you know how much fun you have and stuff like that. And yeah, I mean it's just you know really good experience. Perfect.

Speaker 2 28:14

Thank you guys for sharing your experience. I think this will be great just for everyone in Liberty Community to really hear what it was like from your guys' own experience. So I appreciate it. Thank you guys. Absolutely.