AN UNDERGRADUATE FIELD COURSE IN THE AZUERO PENINSULA, PANAMA: INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION BETWEEN RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS IN COLOMBIA, PANAMA, AND THE USA

The purpose of this abstract is to highlight the educational and cultural benefits to undergraduates through international collaboration in a field setting. In June 2014 students from the University of the Andes (UniAndes) of Bogota, Colombia and undergraduate interns from the Panama Canal Project - PIRE program attended a field course in the Azuero Peninsula, Panama. Leading them were instructors and researchers from the University of Florida, Florida State University, UniAndes, the Florida Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama). The goals of the trip were to create the first 1:25,000 scale map of 220 sq. kilometers in the western region of the Azuero Peninsula as well as to create original research and develop practical skills through self-proposed student projects spanning the sub-disciplines of geology including stratigraphy, petrology, geophysics, etc.

Living and working with English and Spanish speakers of all skills levels necessitated constant communication of material, presented primarily in Spanish, across a language barrier. An immediate recognition of shared interests in the geosciences combined with the need to overcome daily challenges presented by working in the tropics (navigating streams and shorelines to find outcrops) gave all participants a common ground on which to build living and working relationships. Participants investigated distinct regions based on their project goals, necessitating the daily communication of their findings to the group in Spanish, a practice followed by all regardless of language skill level. Through the pursuit of original research, undergraduates gained a sense of ownership over mapping and individual projects.

As geological research can often require international travel, there is a necessity for students to understand how to navigate and interact with professional counterparts from other cultures. This course gave students an opportunity to experience working in a foreign environment, surrounded by students from other cultures, with the intent to make original contributions to geology. As the area is little known to scientific literature, much of what was found will likely add to knowledge through research contributions from undergraduates at meetings and in journals.