STUDENT PROJECTS

SUMMER 2008

Health, water, sanitation, and medicinal plants: David Bush (engineering) and Tiara Thanawastien (environmental studies) are planning on developing a water filtration system that can be built and maintained locally, and that will provide clean drinking water to clinics and schools in the region. They will comine this with a sanitation and hygiene educational campaign. Desiree Hurtado (health science) will document the cultivation, preparation, and use of medicinal plants. She will produce a photographic database with information about the location of these valuable resources and then share it with the members of the different communities.

Animals and health: Tina Free (environmental studies) will test for and treat internal and external parasites in wildlife animals that are kept as pets by people in local communities. Nature photographer and environmental studies student Chris Gillette will document injuries from hazardous animals and their impacts to the health and livelihood of local people. Jennifer Meyer will collect local lore about the health risks and benefits of animals of symbolic prominence in traditional medical systems.

Development of economic opportunities: Ryan Vogel (architecture) will help develop, demonstrate, and promote a prototype palm-climbing device for the sustainable harvest of peach palm fruit. This will allow members of the local communities to harvest and market in a sustainable manner a food staple popular in the region.

Revitalization of cultural traditions and history: Carla Cao (biology) will collect oral histories and record recreated events of traditional story-telling and ceremonies to document the beliefs about people’s relationship to their surroundings and about the history of their lives. These recordings will be re-introduced to children as part of their cultural education. Carla Rosales (vocal performance) and Lauren Elbaum are interested in the role and potential of music in indigenous culture, particularly as a form of expression among children. They will help children compose ethnographic and autobiographical songs that let the rest of the world know what it is like to be an Amazonian child.

Education: To help address the problem of illiteracy in rural Amazon communities, Catalina Medina (business administration) and Karina Rodriguez (education) will document the perceptions that members of local communities have about education to uncover why Amazonian children skip school. All the information uncovered by the student research activities will be returned to the members of the community using techniques that combine traditional oral and graphic systems of communication and education.