Earthwatch: Hunting For Caterpillars-

For years I've paged through Earthwatch's catalogs, eagerly reading about helping sea turtles on the beach all night in Mexico, surveying coral reef systems in the Caribbean, and tagging wildlife in foreign ecosystems.

If you haven't heard of it, Earthwatch is the largest environmental volunteer nonprofit organization in the world. They send volunteers all over the world to work with scientists to solve environmental problems.

So a few years back I applied for an Earthwatch Educator Fellowship. Teachers, through the generous donation of Earthwatch partners, can participate in these expeditions at little or no cost. The idea is to have teachers share their experiences with students and their communities, to promote learning, understanding, volunteerism and research.

Earthwatch added a "Live from the Field" componet to the fellowships, where teachers go on a short research expedition and share the experience with their students via blogging, video conferencing, and pictures.

And happily, today I am headed out on my Live from the Field Earthwatch expedition!

In a team of teachers and scientists, I will be heading to New Orleans for a briefing, and then out into the field to collect, catalog, and research caterpillars of the southeastern Mississippi River Plain. Caterpillar species are more prolific in areas more effected by climate change, and the hurricanes Rita and Katrina that damaged the area so heavily. Our lead scientist has been researching the biodiversity of caterpillars all over the world, specifically their relationship to certain parasitoids. After my training, I will be walking or kayaking many miles in this swampy habitat daily, with possible encounters with snakes, feral hogs, alligators, and nutria, not to mention poison ivy, chiggers and lots and lots of mosquitoes (oh,my!).

So if you are wondering why there are so few posts here on Non-Toxic Kids in the next week and a half, that is why. A pretty good excuse, don't you think? If you want to see what I have been up to on the expedition, check out the Hunting for Caterpillars blog I set up for my class.

I will miss my girls very much, though. I have never been away from them, not even for a night. And this is 10 days. Yikes!

But I am thrilled to be part of this, and to share the experience with my students. I know I will meet amazing people, explore an unfamiliar habitat, and most importantly, forward the research goals of the project.

Toto, this ain't little ole' Vermont anymore. Bye, readers, see you here in a week or so.