Special
events
STRI special events,
November-December 2024
BCI 100 Plant and Ecosystem Science volumes online, Q?Bus visits, STRI celebrates Panama and more.
Tupper Renovation Project receives Honorary Distinction award.
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is proud to share that our Tupper campus, located in the Ancón district in Panama City, has been honored with the Distinction of Honor in the Landscape Architecture Category by the Panamanian Society of Engineers and Architects (SPIA). We extend our heartfelt gratitude to architect Patrick Dillon, the designer of this landscape intervention, and to the generous donors who made this achievement possible.
The BCI 100 Plant and Ecosystem Science volumes
We are pleased to share with you that The First 100 Years of Research on Barro Colorado: Plant and Ecosystem Science (Volumes 1 and 2) is published online. At this moment we share the English version, stay tuned for the Spanish translations.
This 98-chapter edited volume reviews the history and contributions of research undertaken at this moist tropical forest to advance our understanding of tropical plants and ecosystems. The first section describes the setting, including soils, land use history, forest structure, and plant species composition. Nine additional sections concern plant reproduction and seedling regeneration, plant physiology, plant community ecology, population genetics, interactions with microbes and herbivores, remote sensing, observational ecosystem studies, experimental ecosystem studies, and focal taxa and functional group accounts. The authoritative reviews in this volume provide a foundation for future research in this and other tropical forest sites.
STRI participation in the North American Association for Environmental Education Conference.
STRI and SSEC facilitated an interactive session “Contextualizing Climate Resilience for an International Audience of Educators” at the North American Association for Environmental Education Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The STRI delegation included Jimena Pitty, Karina Hassell and Jonathan Gonzalez, a teacher in the Ngäbe-Buglé comarca, who shared their experience with climate resilience activities in classrooms.
Ecosystem Resilience Virtual Academy
An ongoing collaboration between STRI and SSEC, the Ecosystem Resilience virtual academy was held recently. In its 9-hour duration delivered over 2 weeks, formal and informal educators from North and Latin America gained insights into various ecosystems and the resilience characteristics of those ecosystems. In addition, they interacted with experts from the Bird Friendly Coffee program and the Adrienne Arsht Community-Based Resilience Solutions Initiative.
Special visit from Colombia
12 students from the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Educational Institution of the town of Capurganá, Chocó, Colombia, visited Punta Culebra during an academic-cultural exchange program developed by the Colombian Embassy in Panama. The students are participants of a research seedbed in their educational institution, which seeks to promote comprehensive training through research and community activities to develop skills for scientific research and encouraging environmental awareness in their communities and using sustainable solutions to mitigate the human impact on the biodiversity of the Darien Gap region.
STRI celebrates Panama
During the month of November, the STRI community celebrated the month of the homeland with various activities at its facilities, such as planting flags in Punta Culebra. The staff wore beautiful attire during these celebrations.
Q?Bus visits
The Q?Bus program ended its 2024 tours to schools visiting the Abel Bravo School in Colón, and continued sharing science with children and young people from non-governmental organizations such as Hogar San José de Malambo, Fundación Amigos del Niño con Leucemia y Cáncer (FANLYC) and at the headquarters of Casa Esperanza Calidonia and Juan Díaz.
International Mathematical Festival
The Q'Bus program attended the International Mathematical Festival organized by FUNDAPROMAT at the Marriot Hotel in Albrook. Attendees learned about research on coral bleaching in the Panamanian Pacific, relating mathematics to other scientific disciplines and calculated the number of teeth in a shark's mouth.
Niñas de la Capital
The Q'Bus guides visited the facilities of Fundación Hogar de Niñas de la Capital located in northern Panama. The Q'Bus team led activities on the role that watersheds play for human communities and completed a water management challenge with the girls. In addition, the young girls were able to interact with stereoscopes and fixed plates, which was of great interest and joy among them.
Oris Sanjur as judge in Panama's national Oratory contest
The National Oratory Contest is one event with the greatest impact on Panamanian society and the Central American region. It was created in 1970 and has been held for 29 years. Throughout the years, it has formed outstanding characters of the society and has forged students with a more human spirit.
