Departments : Your Middle School Classroom :
A Summer in Kenya
By Peter Barnes
This teacher's expedition in Africa opens up new avenues of learning for his students
Scenes from the adventure of a lifetime.
Our tiny 12-passenger plane bumped and lurched toward the long dirt runway. Goats scattered in all directions, kicking up clouds of dust as the plane rolled to a stop. Samburu boys wrapped in bright red and yellow cloth gawked as our small group of teachers spilled from the plane into the bright Kenyan sunlight. Our adventure with Earthwatch Institute (www.earthwatch.org) had begun.
My fellow teachers and I spent two weeks this past summer as part of an Earthwatch research team in the remote Samburu region of northern Kenya. Earthwatch is a nonprofit organization that funds scientific research in Africa, Asia, South America and other exotic places all over the world. Volunteers pay to go on expeditions and assist with field research projects run by top scientists.
Conflicting needs
Our group worked with scientists who are looking for ways to balance the conflicting needs of people and wildlife in northern Kenya. With the help of translators we interviewed local Samburu tribesmen about predator attacks on their livestock. Lions, leopards and hyenas are forced to eat goats and cows when their natural prey is reduced by overgrazing. Scientists are worried that locals are retaliating by hunting or poisoning these hungry carnivores. We also drove many miles on primitive dirt roads recording wildlife sightings and determining which areas are most in need of conservation.
Adventure!
Many mornings started at 6 a.m. with a quick breakfast before a day in the field. We marched up steep paths searching for leopard and hyena dens and the scat that would give scientists clues about what the predators are eating and how they were living. Fortunately, we never encountered an angry leopard or hyena guarding its home, but we did see elephants, impala, baboons, zebras and many other animals during our excursions. We also had a great deal of fun sharing teaching ideas.
For our students back home, this Earthwatch expedition was a chance to learn about current scientific research from teachers with first-hand experience. My class has seen pictures, held a porcupine quill and a warthog tusk and heard my stories about encountering grumpy elephants and learning tribal medicine from a Samburu chief. We plan to send our ideas for helping the Samburu wildlife to Earthwatch scientists and to correspond with school children from the tiny town of Wamba, Kenya. This is as close as I can bring my students to one of the most exciting adventures of my life.
Peter Barnes teaches fifth grade in New Albany, OH.
January 2007, Vol.37, No.4
