Drawn to Nature

Tate Taylor ’23, Caelia Marshall ’23, and Leah Troy ’23 are not artists.

Or, at least, that’s what they’d have you believe.

但在生物学教授大卫·里布尔(David Ribble)的哥斯达黎加生态学项目中，澳门金沙线上赌博官网的学生们发现了艺术和文化技能是如何提高生物学水平的. For six years, Ribble has taken students on a journey into the world of climate science, studying how temperature, moisture, and other elements affect the distributions and movements of mammals.

This summer, 该小组还加入了一个新元素:邀请澳门金沙线上赌博官网英语教授格雷戈里·黑兹尔顿和澳门金沙线上赌博官网艺术与艺术史教授伊丽莎白·沃德为课程注入文化和艺术元素. 

左起，黑兹尔顿、里布尔和沃德在哥斯达黎加的树荫下享受片刻

“不同种类的哺乳动物之间有一些微妙之处，我可以瞬间识别出来, but I’m not sure I can explain them very well,” Ribble says. “Thanks to Liz’s art perspective, I have a better idea of how drawing can make you a better biologist.”

“思考文化环境和自然环境如何相互作用, and expressing the natural environment through artwork, allows for a completely different kind of understanding to emerge,” Hazleton adds. “我很惊讶我们的学生对自己、国家和整个经历的见解.”

This year, 探险队继续了2018年的项目:设置活体陷阱, planting cameras to “trap,，并在哥斯达黎加森林周围的不同地点观察小型哺乳动物, coasts, and mountains. 该小组走访了过去熟悉的地点，同时在数据收集中添加了新的地点. 里布尔指出，这是该组织有史以来第一次用视频捕捉到美洲虎.

每年一次的考察都将哺乳动物物种的数据添加到一个更大的信息集中，以了解气候如何影响这些种群的偏好海拔. 做这项研究绝非易事:学生们每天可以在崎岖的地形上徒步数英里, intense heat, and long hours.

“This is intense,” Ribble says. “There are so many nuances to field biology. But our students really came through well this year.”

Taylor, Marshall, and Troy can all speak to the rigor of the program. Each day, students woke up at 5 a.m. to check camera traps, some of which required a trek up and down mountains, counted critters on film, ate breakfast, took tours, lectures, worked on presentations, enjoyed a bit of down time, then went back out to reset the traps before dinner.

Taylor, a biology major, 他说，沃德的艺术影响对他繁重的科学日程来说是一个受欢迎的补充.

Tate Taylor

“美术方面真的很酷，因为我们要学习一些观察方法, like using negative space shapes and drawing techniques,” he says. “And art is definitely not my major, so that was a challenge. But it was fun to learn and experiment.”

Ward’s artwork has always focused on nature and natural history. In Costa Rica, 她说，这个项目的学生学会了画出他们正在观察的物种, in the process, gained a more in-depth understanding of their physicality and biology.

“I was pleased at the effort the students put into it, 我认为学生们从哥斯达黎加的视觉化作品中获得了很多满足感, which is just so beautiful.”

特洛伊说她喜欢黑兹尔顿对哥斯达黎加人民的深入研究. “从文化上讲，去一个不同于我所经历过的任何地方的地方是很有趣的. Meeting the people of Costa Rica, that was an experience I might not get again, so I’m thankful for that.”

黑兹尔顿说，这个小组花时间阅读和听有关哥斯达黎加丰富的历史和文化的讲座. The group heard about the country’s unique ecology, 同时也了解了中美洲和南美洲周围的国家社区. 

黑兹尔顿说:“五周时间不足以掌握任何一种文化，但你可以介绍一下。. “这次旅行让学生们有机会沉浸在蒙特韦德地区, visiting towns, 将他们的实地经历与他们之前在教科书上学到的历史和文化联系起来.”

The Trinity students, Hazleton says, found themselves seeking to understand, challenge, and question sweeping generalizations made about Costa Ricans: some founded, some more complicated. 

Caelia Marshall

Marshall, a neuroscience major, says she appreciated the little things about getting to meet new people, instead of just reading about them. “I’ve never been abroad before, 所以我发现向我们的导游随机提问并一对一地了解他们是非常有趣的. One of my first impressions was that everyone would wave. I love to wave, so for hours on our bus, I was just waving to people. In Texas, it’s, like, a 50/50 shot whether someone waves back.” 

里布尔说，这群人周围肯定有一种明显的兴奋情绪:不仅仅是哥斯达黎加当地人和导游, but within the group itself.

“This group was just incredibly kind to each other. Maybe it was just the pleasure of being in person again, but everybody was so considerate of each other’s quirks and so forth,” he says. 

“And our Costa Rican collaborators, they were excited to see us, because it meant they got to resume the things they cared about too—guiding, learning, and introducing people to their home. Our collaborators from the Monteverde Institute were simply outstanding.”

Leah Troy

特洛伊说，她很高兴能在没有麦克风和互联网连接的现场旅行中. “I think this trip was an adjustment—after a semester of being online, looking through screens, to go to living in close quarters in the jungle. 但是，能够把这个介绍重新引入现实世界是很奇怪的, to doing things in person again, this was a phenomenal way to do that.”

虽然这次旅行在文化和艺术方面与以往的课程有所不同, 科学研究也提供了一些关于环境的令人大开眼界的及时启示.

“我认为我们有很好的数据集来看到未来(气候变化)的影响. 里布尔说，已经有一种物种可能正在向上移动(海拔). “Up in the forests, we won’t know the extent of the impact, but we know it’s going to start affecting amphibians, plants, and mammals.”

One location the group visited, Paloverde, was particularly disconcerting. 

“What’s definitely happening in places like Costa Rica, 那里有一个旱季和一个雨季，由来自加勒比海和太平洋的复杂洋流系统驱动, what’s clearly changing is the rain patterns. These used to be consistent. 但在这些雨季出现的是干旱期，”里布尔说. “Paloverde is by the coast. 到五月底，雨季应该已经持续了四五个星期了.”

“We expected the wet season, heavy rainfall, that kind of deal,” Taylor says. “But there was three weeks of drought. It was almost Texas-like, dry heat the entire time we were there.”

“Dry as a bone,” Ribble adds, bluntly.

随着诸如哥斯达黎加之旅等探险活动收集到的数据不断积累, 里布尔说，他将更清楚地知道气候变化对该地区的影响有多大.

And to do that, he’ll continue relying on Trinity’s undergraduate researchers, 在2021年的考察中，跨学科的方法得到了加强.

泰勒说，通过“了解影响生物学的艺术和文化方面”，他已经成为了一名更好的研究人员, because people interact with biology. In Costa Rica, they care about their forests, 有很多人试图帮助我们学习和了解更多澳门金沙赌城线上游戏周围的环境和土地.”

So, while Troy, Taylor, and Marshall might not consider themselves artists, they’ve started considering the liberal arts in a whole new way.

特洛伊说:“在某些课堂上，人们很容易被局限于只关注科学。. “But programs like this help us broaden and enhance our view. The truth is, 无论你在生命科学或艺术方面做什么，都不仅仅是科学或艺术. 你必须能够理解你的知识是如何从不同的地方编织在一起的, and how that makes it stronger.”