JBQ successfully  collaborated with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) and sponsored its first groundbreaking Faculty-led Study Abroad Program to Peru, for pre-service teachers in UNCG’s School of Education and School of Arts & Sciences specializing in science and environmental education and UNCG's honors college Think Tank: Ecologically Stoked about Natural Environments (ECOSANE).

 

In a classroom setting in Lima - generously hosted by Peru's prestigious Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPC) -  JBQ organized an exciting one-day conference on "Environmental Exploration in Peru” with an underlying theme - what should we be teaching about climate change and sustainable development.  The conference featured presentations, panel discussions and exchanges of information with experts in Peruvian and global environmental politics and development, forests, marine ecosystems and herpetology with participants receiving a unique opportunity to compare environmental education and research in Peru with that of North Carolina, USA.

 

Students also got a one-day hands-on teaching experience at the Asociación Esperanza y Caridad -  a school for underprivledged children (K-9) in Chorillos, Lima.

 

 

Our Peru adventure culminated with an unforgettable five-day tour of the Manu Biosphere that gave everyone a cloud forest to river basin glimpse of wildlife, birds, flora, fauna, and amphibians and reptiles to excite even our most seasoned biologists.   The trip also included a briefing by conservationists and biologists resident at the Manu Learning Centre in the heart of the rainforest. reserve.