Sunday, February 24, 2013

Conservation club develops messages for other students on the importance of throwing away our waste!

-->
  This week, after picking up litter around the school, children designed posters to inform other students, staff, and community members about littering. Littering is a big problem in both Kasane and Kazungula, with a great deal of trash scattered in the streets and even the banks of the river. When it rains and the river rises, this trash can get carried into the river, polluting the water that we drink! Unfortunately, humans aren’t the only ones affected by pollution. All parts of the ecosystem are affected, including the many animals, aquatic and on land, that rely on the Chobe River as a water resource. When this trash enters the system it is harmful to the animals and negatively affects the water quality. Using this knowledge, children used a variety of craft supplies to show their peers why it is important to throw trash in the bin and pick up litter on the streets. The final posters will be hung around the school to reach out to the whole community.The children also use old plastic bottles to create art and useful objects like bird feeders demonstrating the importance of waste recycling.



Saturday, February 16, 2013




Undergraduate Training in Research Cooperation between NSF Project Objectives and the Fralin SURF Program

Our program has a large focus on undergraduate training with numerous students benefiting from the  international training experience provided by this project. The project focus of science and discovery coupled with outreach in human - environmental interactions provides a unique environment to develop the next generation of multidisciplinary scientists focused on coupled human environmental interactions.  As a Fralin Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, (SURF), Kathy Battle (above) spent her 2012 summer semester, and then subsequently, the 2012 fall semester, in the Alexander Wildlife Health and Disease Ecology Lab working on this project gaining valuable experience from the Post doctoral and graduate students supported under this program. Her work was focused on assisting Dr. Jobbins (a post doctoral associate) in examining Escherichia coli from fecal samples collected from wildlife. E. coli can be found in most mammalian guts and is used as a model for understanding how microorganisms might move between humans and animals. Detection of antibiotic resistant E.coli in wildlife can be an important signal that human microorganisms are indeed moving across the landscape.

Project Education Activities- Linking Research with Outbreach



Our Conservation Education Club is an important program in Chobe run as a cooperative project under this program with our local NGO partner, CARACAL. CARACAL was established by Dr. Alexander (project PI) together with Dr. Vandewalle (Adjunct Professor VT and CARACAL CEO). The Conservation Club meets at both Kasane and Kazungula Primary Schools once a week after school is done for the day to learn about the importance of protecting the amazing and unique environment they live in. Our year long, NSF-funded curriculum seeks to educate the students in the Chobe district about environmental problems in their own communities, as well as relate world wide problems to them. The curriculum covers topics like climate change, endangered species, overfishing, and, most importantly, the protection and conservation of our greatest natural resource, water. Both Kazungula and Kasane are located right next to the Chobe River and many people make a living off of this waterway, whether it be from fishing or tourism. Therefore it is of vital importance to teach every generation the best ways to live sustainably next to such an importance resource so that these communities will be able to maintain their livelihoods for years to come.
            We start our program with a brief introduction about CARACAL and the goals of the class, the students are asked about what they thought were signs of a healthy environment versus signs of an unhealthy environment. After talking about some examples, the whole club went for a walk around the school and the surrounding area to look for some of these examples. The goal of this lesson was to help the children understand that when they see healthy animals and growing plants as well as clean water, they will know that the ecosystem is healthy. However, the children were also asked to look for signs of an unhealthy environment, and at both schools the main problem was litter. When the students were asked what they could do to make their environment more healthy, all of them suggested to pick up the litter. Our nature walk ended up doubling as a trash clean up and the schoolyards looked much better after our hard work!
            At Kazungula, the club spotted another sign of an unhealthy environment besides the trash, a leaking sewer pipe. While to the casual observer, this leak would just look like a normal puddle next to the road, the children recognized that this water was coming from a sewer pipe. This was a great example for the kids to find because it showed them that not everything is as it appears in the environment and although they might first think that the ecosystem is healthy, sometimes it is necessary to take a closer look to discover the problem.
After this introductory lesson, the curriculum will be focusing on several different animals that can be found in Chobe that are misunderstood or that the children don’t know too much about, such as spiders, snakes, crocodiles, and bees, and their importance to the environment. Many of these animals are considered dangerous but there is no one to explain to the children what actually classifies these animals as a threat. For example, since they have been taught that all snakes are dangerous, many of the children will throw stones at a snake in self-defense if they see one, when in reality the snake is trying to avoid humans and has no intention of harming anyone. By educating the students about the habits and lifestyles of these misunderstood animals, people will feel less threatened by the wildlife they share their environment with. Since all of these animals need water to survive, although some rely on it more than others, like the crocodile, these lessons will be able to incorporate the main theme of the curriculum, protecting and conserving clean water, into each class.

           

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Predators in the Chobe wetlands ecosystem












 Sarah Jobbins and Claire Sanderson Post doctoral students in the Alexander lab have isolated E. coli from a variety of species including predators in the Chobe Environment. Comparing these different species will allow us a better understanding of pathogen transmission as well as the spread of antibiotic resistance across the landscape.