SHS grad visits Galapagos Islands

SANDPOINT — From swimming with sea lions to paddleboarding with penguins, a recent trip to the Galapagos Islands was a unique experience for Madison Bovee.

Bovee, a 2016 Sandpoint High School graduate who is now in her senior year at the University of Idaho, was not in the Galapagos Islands solely for the fun of it, however. The elementary education major was on the trip primarily for scientific and educational purposes.

“It was a once in a lifetime trip — it was amazing,” Bovee said.

Over the course of three weeks, Bovee was given the opportunity to see how evolutionary biology is taught in Galapagos schools as part of a research project studying snail shells.

Bovee teamed up with associate professor, Brant Miller, who teaches science education for the UI College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. The duo, along with another educator from Michigan, made up the science education team. Associate professor Christine Parent, an evolutionary biologist who teaches in the UI College of Science, along with two undergraduate students, one from UI and one from Michigan, made up the science team.

Bovee said she was in Miller’s class when she started her education courses two years ago, and then last semester she attended his science methods class for juniors and seniors. He had recently spent time in the Galapagos Islands, Bovee said, and was telling the kids about his experience and what he was doing over there as a science educator. So when he emailed an application out to his science methods students about the opportunity to join him and the others for a few weeks in the summer, Bovee decided to give it a shot.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it because it was such a cool opportunity,” Bovee said.

Also, she said, the entire trip was paid for through a National Science Foundation grant. She was also given money for the work she did in preparation for the trip, as she was in charge of putting together most of the curriculum they took with them.

The first three days after they got to the islands were spent in the classroom with the local students between the ages of 9 and 11. On the last day of the classroom sessions, Bovee said they went to a farm owned by the family of one of the kids. It was a “huge” coffee farm, she said, and the three on the education team each took a group of kids out to collect snail shells, which coincided with the work of Parent and her team. Parent’s work is focused on colonization, differentiation, adaptation, diversification, and extinction of Galápagos land snails.

“It was a really cool trip that I got to experience the education side, but then I also helped do the research with Christine Parent,” Bovee said. “I was very lucky.”

While Bovee got a good dose of education in the Galapagos Islands, the majority of her work was completed in the first week and a half, so she got to enjoy some snorkeling, hiking and, of course, wildlife watching.

One of the “coolest” experiences was swimming with sea lions, she said. While Galapagos animals are not dangerous, Bovee said, tourists and locals are not supposed to approach them. However, if the animals go to you, it is a “different story,” she said. So while she and another girl were out snorkeling, four baby sea lions and their mom were swimming around them. She also, as mentioned, went paddleboarding with penguins. She saw sharks swimming in the ocean, as well as a lot of “really big rays.” At one point there were about 15 sea turtles below her, “just chilling” on the sand floor. And then on Isla Isabela, she even got to see some flamingos.

The trip, overall, will benefit Bovee on her quest to become an elementary teacher. As all elementary education teachers need an endorsement, Bovee has three — math, literacy and English as a new language. As for the latter, most of the Galapagos youngsters she worked with did not speak English, and because Bovee is not fluent in Spanish, she had to find different ways to interact with the kids, such as visuals. Also, she said, with math being her main endorsement, she wanted to gain a background in science it goes hand-in-hand with math.

“I wanted to do this trip just so I had that experience and to encourage life-long learners in that aspect,” Bovee said. “I want all of my future students to have a good background in science and to be excited about it … There are multiple things I learned from this trip — it was just such a great opportunity.”

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.