Fulbright – Page 2 – Snedeker Science

These are the things that I get myself into when I don’t get much sleep. Then again, I probably would have still done it anyways! I do want to disclose that we didn’t start from the canyon’s highest point nor did we go into the deepest part of the canyon but it was still about 4,000 feet of difference from the highest point to the lowest point. This adventure would start from Peru’s 2nd most populated city, Arequipa. This city is beautiful with buildings constructed of volcanic rock. It is also surrounded by volcanoes!

You can see some snow-capped volcanoes in the background

For my hike of the Colca Canyon I had the choice of doing it in two days or three days. I’d previously spent the past two weeks in cities and I was looking for some relaxation so I opted for the three day hike. Apparently this is not very common and there was only one other person. Everyone else does it in two days and we were both glad we chose three days for reasons which will be explained later.

Andean Condors

Like so many of my adventures, we got an early start. I had to be ready to go by 3 a.m. After two hours of driving we stopped at an overlook where Andean Condors like to ride the thermals. These condors are the heaviest flying birds and can have wingspans that reach 11 feet! They can go months between meals and can go hours circling the skies without flapping their wings. The Andean condor was considered holy by the Incas.

A juvenile condor dropped by for a visit

After a little more driving we arrived to the trailhead for the start of our hike. We were on the southern rim of the canyon which meant that the walls of the canyon were facing the north. This is weird to say but during the day the sun is in the northern part of the sky. While it is indeed winter, we are at a fairly low latitude so the sunlight would be fairly strong. When paired with the high altitude, solar intensity would affect me much more than the elevation would.

A map showing average solar intensity for July. The red indicates high intensity. The red line was our the approximate path we took over the three days.

You can see three towns we would walk through in this image. We would spend the night at the town on the far right. Beneath the towns are terraces created by the Incas and pre-Incan cultures to reduce erosion and for agriculture.

Looking down on Sangalle, an oasis at the bottom of the canyon. We would come in from the right, spend the second night here, and hike out towards the left.

After a short hike along the rim we began our downward journey to the bottom. The sides were steep and the trails were just several miles worth of switchbacks. One misstep and you would find yourself falling uncontrollably towards the bottom of the canyon. This wasn’t too much of a concern at first but after hours of being out in the sun and feeling the effects of heat exhaustion I had to be extra careful with where I stepped.

The trail before the switchbacks began. The slope it crosses is incredibly steep!

As we descended, sheer walls of columnar basalt towered over us. It was intimidating and unnerving to know that an earthquake could occur at any time that could bring these walls down on top of us and we would have nowhere to go. Fortunately there were no earthquakes and I could admire all the geologic wonders that were there.

Eventually we did make it to the bottom of the canyon. After crossing a bridge across the Colca River it was time to start ascending up the other side a little bit. By this time the heat was really getting to me and I struggled more than I should have. It would not be too much longer until we got to the small town, San Juan de Chuccho, where we would have a lunch (made over a fire) and spend the night. Avocados are grown in this valley and it was served with every meal. The food we had while staying here was excellent and the woman was very nice. It is impressive because there is no road nor is there any electricity. After lunch, the people hiking the canyon kept going another 3 miles while I got to relax in the canyon and take in the views.

In the foreground you can see the building I spent the night in. In the background you can see the trail zig-zagging down the slope.

It took me a few hours of hydrating and resting to start to feel like myself again. Agnes would have been disappointed as I was not able to finish my lunch. By dinner I had my appetite back and was back to finishing my meals. Stay tuned for part two of the Colca Canyon trek!

A Real Desert Oasis

By neilsnedeker

On July 24, 2022

In Peru Blog

Peru, West of the Andes, is a desert. It is a continuation of the Atacama Desert that is found in Chile. This desert varies in appearance throughout Peru and while in Paracas I saw a lot of salt deposits covered by a thin layer of sand. My next destination would be Huacachina which looks like your stereotypical desert full of towering sand dunes.

Huacachina is an actual desert oasis formed due to an underground current of water. Due to overuse water has to be put back into this oasis to prevent it from being completely drained. It turns out that this is a party oasis and had I known that I may have stayed in Ica which is just 15 or so minutes away. I would be here for less than 24 hours so I could deal with it. Music was heard playing until 6am.

If you see tiny black specks along the ridge of the sand dune, those are people.

The afternoon that I arrived at this oasis would prove to be extremely exciting. I had signed up to ride a dune buggy through the dunes. The driver was crazy and there were several times I thought we would roll over. We got some serious speed and we could feel the wind and sand blowing through our hair. We would go up a sand dune and straight down the other side. It was definitely like a roller coaster. At one point we caught some major air and things flew out of the back.

Eventually we made out way to the top of one of the large sand dunes and everyone got out. It was time for our sandboarding. We were each given a board and lined up along the ridge. It as a long way down and fairly steep so it was definitely a little nerve wracking. Eventually it was my turn to go down and it was so much fun! At the bottom we were able to walk up another short ridge and continue boarding down the dune.

When our sandboarding was done we got back into the buggy and continued to another dune to catch the sunset. We sat there enjoying just how peaceful it was. Once the sun set we were back in the buggies and headed back to Huacachina, racing other buggies in the process.

I spent part of the evening sitting next to the water enjoying this unique location. As it got even darker I decided to venture partway up one of the sand dunes to escape the lights of town to look at the stars. I was not disappointed. There still was a lot of light pollution but I was able to make out several constellations including Crux (Southern Cross) a well known constellation only visible in the Southern Hemisphere.

This is not an actual picture of what I saw. It wasn’t nearly dark enough.

The next morning I would leave Huacachina. It was worth a visit but one night was enough. I’d be spending the next 18 or so hours on a bus but there was a brief stop in Nazca to see some of the Nazca lines. If I decided to stay in Nazca I could have taken a flight to see more but three were visible from the viewing tower the bus stopped at.

So That Is What the Sun Looks Like!

By neilsnedeker

On July 23, 2022

In Peru Blog

Lima’s nickname is ‘The Grey City’ because the sky is always so grey. As the bus pulled out of Lima this morning I wondered how much of Peru would be like this. Only time would tell as we made our way to Paracas.

As I describe my adventures throughout Peru I will try to keep it brief. This means that I will not talk about every thing I did or every place I visited. For more pictures you can go here: https://scisned.com/travel/peru/

On our way to Paracas we stopped at this bakery and had freshly baked Peruvian bread. After breakfast we were given a horse dancing show and then we got to play a few rounds of cuy bingo for prizes. Once that was done it was back on the bus.

We were getting close to Paracas but the sky was still grey. About ten minutes out we started to see blue skies and we saw the Sun! For the next two weeks, there would only be one day without the Sun (Machu Picchu day). Once in Paracas I would spend the next couple hours just wandering the small city and walking along the beach. That evening I would go on a sunset trek to the Paracas National Reserve. While there we would hike up the sand dunes along the coast for a couple hours and enjoy the beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean. Hiking was easy as these sand dunes were made of salt covered in sand.

Just after descending the peak after sunset

The next morning I took a boat tour to the Ballestas Islands which are nicknamed ‘the Peruvian Galapagos’ because of their biodiversity. There were not nearly as many sea lions but there were a lot more birds. islands completely covered with them. There were also Humboldt penguins!

While floating through the sea stacks we saw a sea lion doing battle with something. After watching for several minutes we saw that the sea lion had successfully caught a large fish. Here you can see it dragging its meal up onto the rocks.

Later that morning I would head back to the Paracas National Reserve for a tour of some of the different features that can be found there. Once our tour was over we got on the bus and it was off to our next destination.

This rock formation is called the Cathedral. It no longer looks like a cathedral after collapsing during an earthquake many years ago.

This red beach is caused by the weathering of the red granodiorite in the cliffs above it.

The End of the First Chapter

By neilsnedeker

On July 23, 2022

In Peru Blog

It is amazing how quickly our ten days in Peru for our International Field Experience went. There was so much packed within our time that I would have so much to process once I got home. I addition to those three school visits I just described, here is a little more of what went on during our last couple of days in Lima.

International Alumni Engagement: Building Networks and Understanding Through Teacher Collaboration

Some of the Peruvian Fulbright Alumni that we met during our time in Peru

One of the many goals of this Fulbright Teachers for Global Education program is to build networks between teachers in the United States and teachers in other countries. Towards the end of the program an Alumni engagement event was organized. Some of these teachers/administrators work at the schools that we visited. Others were either too far for us to go visit or the visits got cancelled. There were three main objectives for this alumni engagement session:

To debrief experiences and observations
To begin action planning
To discuss continued collaboration

One of the topics that was discussed were concerns that the Peruvians shared regarding their educational system. One of the significant concerns mentioned was the hidden discourse inherent in their society. While there is a lot of diversity in Peru (including international and indigenous communities) they are often not incorporated into the curriculum. Images transmit messages, even if it isn’t intended. Ignoring the contributions, histories, and existences of different groups can be damaging to students wellbeing as well as the societal stability. Students within the country are able to identify more international celebrities than Peruvian ones. One possible reason for this is that companies with money influence the writing of textbooks.

During our morning session there was time to continue to build our connections. I spoke with one teacher about some of the programming at her school which has embraced project-based learning. Students are leaders and have to produce something that will benefit the school or community in some way. They are currently working on learning about Peruvian inventors and they are taking an interdisciplinary approach. This aligns with many of my educational philosophies so we were excited to talk. Unfortunately there was not nearly enough time but we do want to see if we can find a way to partner our schools up for virtual collaboration. We’d like to choose a project that would benefit both of our communities. We shall see what happens!

Debrief of the International Field Experience

With just two days remaining we got together to debrief and discuss our thoughts on our time together. It felt like we had just been in the conference room at the hotel for an introduction to our field experience. Our objectives for this morning session were:

To reflect upon your travel experience
To synthesize and evaluate professional and personal impact
To practice and plan for telling the story of your travel experience

The first part of the session was to really think deep, reflect, and consider the impact it had on us. From there we were asked to consider what our next steps might be. To be honest, I’ve felt pretty discouraged with education after the last two years of uncertainty with covid and everything else. I left this program reinvigorated and excited. To work with so many innovative educators that continue to strive towards excellence really was what I needed.

The rest of the session was spent discussing Fulbright Alumni resources, grants, and opportunities. Now that I have finished my Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms programs I am eligible for numerous other programs and grants. These grants are specifically for incorporating global education into my classroom. There are virtual platforms that bring alumni together from all over the world to support each other and to work with. There are Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Short-Term Programs and one I was very interested in until I realized that I missed the application deadline. That program will have a teacher spending 6-8 weeks in Cusco working with schools to develop environmental education curriculums. This mirrors a lot of the work that I have done leading professional development within my school and community.

Taste of Peru Cooking Class

On our last day, right before our farewell dinner, we went to Sirena Restobar which is a restaurant along the coast for a cooking class. Prior to that we went on a tour of a Peruvian market and got to learn about (and taste) some Peruvian fruit. The first dish we made was causa rellena which is a popular appetizer made of mashed potatoes, avocado, and chicken. It also contains some aji amarillo (yellow hot pepper) which made it even better.

After we got to enjoy what we just made we were moving onto the main course, ceviche. I’m not a fan of ceviche but I went along with it anyways. For those note familiar with it, it is raw fish that it “cooked” in citrus juice. The acid replaces heat in the denaturation of it so it is safe to eat but it still isn’t really for me. When the head chef who was leading the course tried mine she was impressed and gave me two thumbs up though. At the end when asked whose was the best she pointed to me and to one other educator. Still not for me.

Ceviche. We were told to pour everything, including the juices onto the plate. I feel it would have looked better without them.

Once we ate our ceviche we moved on to the last thing we would make, pisco sour. This is a drink that Peru is well known for. When those were finished we moved on to our farewell dinner. At the dinner all of the participants were given certificates that were personalized for something that made them stand out.

Why was I named the most adventurous? You will have to wait and see. While my International Field Experience has now come to an end, I stayed in Peru an additional two weeks to do some traveling on my own. Stay tuned! The most exciting stuff is yet to come!

Three More School Visits

By neilsnedeker

On July 21, 2022

In Peru Blog

Throughout our time in the program there were three more school visits. Each school was different than the one that preceded it.

Institución Educativa N°6152 Stella Maris

As we walked through the front gate the students were interested in us but there wasn’t the excitement that we had seen at the prior schools. We walked through one of the courtyards and entered the secondary section of the school grounds. As we walked by an 8th grade math classroom the school administrator asked for four volunteers to go into the room and I was one of them. The other teachers would go into different rooms. Once we entered the room the teacher stepped aside and we were left in the front and center of the room with no introduction. After a brief awkward pause we started a brief question and answer session until we were picked back up.

Students learning to weld. I was dismayed by the fact that not everyone was wearing a welding hood.

Next up was a walk over to the primary section of the grounds. While there we entered a classroom (3rd grade?) and did a little group activity with them.

Some of the primary classrooms next to a courtyard where students can play.

For the last part of our visit we were brought into their English classroom and several of their students performed some folk dances for us. After some goodbyes we were on our way.

The buildings in the background house the secondary classrooms.

Institución Educativa N°5143 “Escuela de Talentos”

Our welcome to this school was completely different than the other schools we visited. Instead of seeing traditional dances, their orchestra performed for us in the main courtyard. This would set the tone for how different this school would be.

Once the students started to pack up their instruments and some introductions were made, we were brought into a math classroom. Every student had a brand new laptop and there was an interactive whiteboard in the front of the room. Of all the schools we visited, this one resembled schools in the United States the most. When we left the math room we were broken up into groups and brought into different rooms. My group was brought into a robotics lab where students were working on building remote control cars that would be programmed with an Arduino. Later in the year they would be building drones.

Some students had me help them with putting their car together

This school is a public school but students need to apply to get in. From what I understand, this school is also sponsored by an oil company and that explains why they have so much more in the way of resources than the other schools we saw. Prior to leaving the school some students gave brief presentations on some of the projects that they had worked on. Some students gave presentations on a tiny submersible that could be piloted remotely and was meant to collect garbage in the ocean. This was just a functional model but it was impressive. Another group gave a presentation on a disinfecting robot that they created.

This robot uses UV light to disinfect floors

One of the students gave a presentation on a voice assistant app he is creating for people who are visually impaired. The last group of students gave a presentation on their studies of electromagnetism, Faraday’s Law, and electromagnetic induction. The electrical grid is not very reliable and students want to look for ways that they can work towards improving it.

Students discussing the data they have collected regarding the wireless transmission of energy

Institución Educativa Dora Mayer

As we walked through the front gate there were students holding up a metal hoop covered in red, white, and blue balloons that they had us walk through. From there we were escorted to their auditorium for an assembly in our honor. We were seated on on side of the room, students on another, and some educators on a third. Students performed traditional dances, a student sang a song for us, and we were presented with certificates of appreciation.

The rest of our visit to this school was a whirlwind. We were broken up into small groups and went from classroom to classroom. In one classroom students performed a conversation in English that they had created. In another classroom we got to see some 1st graders learning to count using manipulatives like beer bottle and soda bottle caps. Another classroom gave us some arroz con leche and bracelets. In another classroom we joined the class in drawing our three favorite things in Peru. While this was all taking place other students were playing in the courtyard. In between rooms students would come up to us and ask for the occasional autograph or selfie.

For the first time I got to go into an actual science lab although no students were currently in it. There were long lab tables covered in porcelain tiles with science supplies lining some of the walls. One of the things that I found interesting was that they had preserved specimens of some human organs like a brain and they had preserved human fetuses at different ages. After a quick walkthrough I got to enter the physics classroom. The physics teacher was sitting at his desk just relaxing and was super laid back like pretty much every other physics teacher I know. We spoke very briefly but then I had to move on. Of all the school visits, this one was by far the most fun. The students and faculty really didn’t want us to leave but we didn’t either. It probably took us at least 45 minutes to head out due to the constant requests for group pictures and selfies. Unfortunately we had to leave as our day was completely packed full.

The Adventures of a Science Teacher

Tag: Fulbright Page 2 of 4

A Hike? To the Bottom of the Second Deepest Canyon on Earth? Sure!

Andean Condors

A Real Desert Oasis

So That Is What the Sun Looks Like!

The End of the First Chapter

International Alumni Engagement: Building Networks and Understanding Through Teacher Collaboration

Debrief of the International Field Experience

Taste of Peru Cooking Class

Three More School Visits

Institución Educativa N°6152 Stella Maris

Institución Educativa N°5143 “Escuela de Talentos”

Institución Educativa Dora Mayer