Primera vez pero espero que no la última

The forest        and          the trees

This is my first time teaching a
field course away from the UO.

This is my first involvement with a study abroad program - taking students to a foreign country to learn about a new place, to work in an environment very different from the Pacific Northwest, and to see and study exotic organisms.

Stoplight Parrotfish, terminal phase male                                           Sponge, Cliona delitrix

Dr Jan Hodder

 This is my first time working closely with my colleague of 20 years, Jan Hodder, to organize and teach this new opportunity for OIMB/UO students to study tropical marine biology.  

All has gone extremely well! 

The place, the marine organisms and the people – the environment, sensu lato, has provided a wonderful opportunity for all involved in this course.  ALL of the student blogs have clearly expressed the novelty, exhilaration, and openness to this experience.  Now its my turn.

Scarus speeds students to snorkle site

As a teacher this has been a treat!  The facility, boats, staff, and food here at the Smithsonian’s Bocas Research Station (BRS) have all been seamless in their support of this course.  When one goes to the tropics, one can expect some quirkiness in operation; it seems to go with the heat and humidity.  Strangely but happily, this tropical quirkiness has been almost non-existent at BRS.  Thank-you Christian, Gustavo, Plinio, Gabriel, Arcadio, and the MANY other staff here who have made our life easy!

Breakfast this morning          and                  a cucumber snack before our snorkle yesterday

Jan, you’ve been a great co-instructor for this expansion of OIMB’s impact on students!  I wonder why it has taken me so long to co-teach with you. (The reason is that we both have been so busy with our own teaching efforts and professional activities in Oregon.)  Jan, thank-you for suggesting several years back that we do this field course.

Caribbean reef squid (how many can you find?)                        and                  mangrove root flora and fauna

 But most importantly, STUDENTS, I thank you for this absolutely first rate, most excellent, very rewarding chance to return to Panama and to learn with you!!!!  All of you have worked impressively hard.  You have been at 6:30am breakfast; you have gone flat-out all day. Most, if not all, of you have been still working hard when I retreat and collapse around 10pm.  You have truly and literally immersed yourselves in your planned research projects.   You have embraced tropical organisms, our lectures, and our field trips!  You have been extremely well behaved and model students for representing OIMB, UO, and the USA in a foreign country!  I am lucky to have you as students in this course; you have made me proud to be your instructor.  I will remember this experience fondly for a long time. 

Team MJS and the Damsels all hard at work

Tropical plankton and seagrass data collection

Finally I’d like to warmly acknowledge and thank Tom and Carol Williams and the Williams Council at the UO for supporting the development and launching of this field course.  Financial support from their Instructional Programs Fund helped me visit Panama last year (Sept. 2012) to scout out this place, purchase course supplies and aided several students with demonstrated financial need attend this first time field course. 

Primera vez pero espero que no la última! (The first time but I hope not the last!)

Sincerely,  Richard

a jawfish (and some think I talk too much....:)