Source: State Gazette
A local educator has been selected to join a global master's degree that begins next week studying desert and marine ecosystems on the Baja peninsula.
Dyersburg Intermediate School educator Bart Williams will be studying at the UNESCO World Heritage site, Bahia de los Angeles on the Sea of Cortez June 6-14.
In this biosphere reserve, the group of 20 U.S. educators will work to apply the fundamentals of field methods - such as capture/recapture, pitfall traps and line transects - to ecological questions and conservation practice.
Williams is one of 120 U.S. and international educators accepted to the second year of the Global Field Program from Project Dragonfly at Miami University.
As part of the program, all new and continuing GFP students will travel to a conservation site this summer in Africa, Asia or the Americas.
Groups of GFP educators will also study cheetahs in Namibia, tag leatherback sea turtles in Trinidad, investigate howler monkeys in Belize, study the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity in the Amazon, explore tropical rainforest ecology in Costa Rica, examine primatological field methods and their applications in Borneo, research the world's last wild horses in Mongolia, and study the role of the Maasai in Kenyan ecosystems. Throughout, the master's students will engage with international colleagues and scientists to work together to bring about local and global change.
The GFP master's is based on the successful Earth Expeditions program from Dragonfly and the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.
Since 2004 - when Earth Expeditions began engaging educators in firsthand educational and scientific research at conservation hotspots around the world - over 900 educators have been selected from 48 states and several international countries.
Those interested in more information may visit www.ProjectDragonfly.org.