Ashland students to explore faraway lands
Research expedition to include Ecuador, Galapagos Islands
ASHLAND, Maine — A group of local high school students is planning to embark next summer on the opportunity of a lifetime, delving into faraway oceans and jungles in the name of science.
If all goes as planned, a contingent from Ashland District School will be the first in Maine to participate in a biodiversity outreach organization called Operation Wallacea, and will visit Ecuador and The Galapagos Islands to assist in research projects.
Ashland District School math instructor Melanie Baker heard about the organization, called Opwall for short. The effort originated in the United Kingdom and has satellite offices in several locations worldwide, including one in Staunton, Va. After investigating it a bit, Baker had an idea — a big idea.
“I’m a high school math teacher,” she explained. “I’m always looking for data that we can graph and compare variables. I was looking through all kinds of data that you can find online, and I came upon this biodiversity data — like the number of tadpoles that are dying in Ecuador, just things like that.”
She found out that Opwall conducts expeditions around the world, pairing high school students with doctoral students and conservation specialists, and they work as data researchers and gatherers. The data is used to develop and maintain biodiversity and conservation programs.
“I fell in love with the whole thing and I really got interested in what they were doing,” said Baker, “and I wanted to participate.”
Four students are committed to the trip, which is scheduled to take place in June 2017. They are junior Lucas Craig and freshmen Mackenzie Hall, Kassandra Nelson and Jack Routhier. Accompanying them will be Baker as team leader, along with two other adults.
She admitted it’s a huge undertaking.
“It is very expensive — about $5,000 per student — and that’s the reason why we’re getting the word out,” she said. “We’ve got a year to get as much push for funding as possible.”
The small group already has several fundraisers scheduled. This summer, Baker said, they intend to do a baked potato booth in connection with both Ashland Days and Portage Days, as well as get in on the whoopie pie contest in Portage. Other events include a silent auction and raffles, and Baker is contemplating a plan for different levels of sponsorship.
Despite the cost, she said, the venture will be worth so much more for what the students will gain: exploring a distant world, having a hand in world ecology, and serving others a world away from Maine.
“It’s focused on not so much their career exploration, but just to have the experience of doing something that’s beyond what they could get in Ashland,” she said. “The kids themselves will actually be doing a lot of the legwork and the gopher work of doctoral students and researchers, and what those people are doing is gathering data.”
Those data, she said, support biodiversity programs and even help decide where funding should go.
She defined biodiversity as the whole of nature — plants, animals, everything interacting together. “The Galapagos Islands are considered ‘ground zero’ for biodiversity,” Baker said. “They have a little bit of desert, a little bit of rainforest; ocean, marine — just so many species that exist in and around that area. And for us to conserve it is probably a very wise thing to do.”
During the two-week expedition, the Ashland group will travel by boat from Ecuador into the jungles and will also have a chance to experience the ocean. “They can do some scuba diving and can actually view what’s down there,” Baker noted. “Kassandra (Nelson) has already started the process of being certified as a diver and plans on doing more of that this summer so she can go right into diving when she gets there.”
The students will be doing doctoral-level data gathering, which Baker said is amazing for sophomores and juniors in high school. “We don’t have a whole lot of opportunity to show our kids high-level research work,” she commented.
Opwall invites high school students on these expeditions not just to give them the experience, but because their data gathering tends to be fresh and unbiased. “High school students don’t expect certain results,” Baker pointed out. “They record what they see and feel. Doctoral students often kind of expect results, because they’ve studied that far and have all that knowledge, which could sometimes color their results. Younger students maybe look at things more simply and can get more pure and accurate results.”
While the group will focus mostly on recording details about the animal and plant populations in the areas they visit, they will also have a chance to work with native populations.
“We also will be helping the indigenous people of Ecuador and the Galapagos, to help them learn ways to conserve what they have there,” Baker said. “This is community service — and the school board has approved that the kids will get all of their community service hours in that trip.”
Safety in those distant locales is, of course, a concern, but Baker said Opwall has that covered. “It’s all high school students that are in this type of program, and they definitely want to make sure the students are safe — so they always have a full staff available,” she explained. “That’s part of the reason it is quite pricey: guides, doctors, insurance, medical staff, everything is included.”
Baker hopes the community will be inspired to help the group attain their fundraising goals. “It’ll be an amazing thing if we can pull it off,” she said. “It’s definitely going to be an exciting trip for all of us.”
For further information, the group has a website: www.sad32opwallexpedition.com, as well as a Go Fund Me location, KasLucMacJacOpWall. They are also on Facebook, where people can search for Expedition-with-Operation-Wallacea-144794395904283/.
“I think it’s amazing that we’re the first group in the state to go,” she reflected. “What I want them to get out of this whole trip is helping to conserve things that are not going to last forever, helping these things last a little longer.”
