By EILEEN RYAN

Lions and hyenas and sustainable approaches to human-wildlife coexistence, oh my!

Those are just a few of the things Karrer science teacher Bob Cline learned about on his July 1-9 trip to Kenya with a group of American educators.

The group worked with Kenyan scientists, including David Western, author of In the Dust of Kilimanjaro.

Western shared his ideas about the importance of coexistence and the importance of protecting the entire ecosystem, not just endangered animals such as rhinos and elephants, Cline said.

Western, who has studied Amboseli Park for at least 30 years, espouses the idea of parks beyond parks, Cline said.

In addition to preserving park land, conservationists must forge connections with the communities outside of the parks, which are connected to parks through animal migratory routes.

Kenya’s Amboseli National Park is a great place to study human-wildlife coexistence because the Maasai people have co-existed with nature for thousands of years, Cline said.

They are nomadic herders, whose goats and cattle share an environment with lions and hyenas, he said.

The group spent seven days at a research station on Maasai communal lands.

“The Maasai are such a beautiful and friendly people,” he said.

The brightness of their shukas — their clothes — and their smiles provided a welcoming contrast to the arid landscape, he said.

In addition to working in the field with scientists, the educators spent a community day with Maasai elders for an open discussion. It gave the educators a chance to learn about the Maasai and to teach them about the United States.

“They were really concerned and interested in how our education system works and then also what major religions are in America,” Cline said.

Cline, who is also a church youth director, was fully equipped to participate in that discussion.

“On our end it was just learning about their way of life,” he said.

“They’re pasturalists. They live off the land and are very connected with nature,” he said.

“One of the biggest things I realized is how disconnected we are from nature in the states. They’re on the exact opposite end of the spectrum.”

One of the highlights of the trip for Cline was an interaction with a Maasai boy about the age of his Dublin students.

Cline said the boy told him, “In Kenya, we don’t have many people who have white skin, so we think you’re very different, but in talking to you today, I learned that we’re the same, even though our skin is different.”

“It was very profound coming from a child,” Cline said.

Cline will share his experiences with his own students next school year. His students “really enjoy it because they get to see real scientists in the field in action” he said, “breaking down some of the stereotypes of what science is.”

He will give a slide presentation of photos, hoping “to inspire my students to get out and try new things as well — to learn that the world isn’t really that big of a place.” Such travel is possible for anyone, he said.

Cline will also implement the inquiry-based component of the program in his classroom.

“Students get to pursue questions that they want to have answered,” he said. “It’s neat for the students because they get to be the scientist and they get to be the researcher.”

The trip was Cline’s first experience in Kenya, but he had been to Africa before.

In 2005 he traveled to Namibia with the Earth Expeditions program, the same one that sent him to Kenya and to Belize in 2006.

The program was established by Miami University’s Project Dragonfly and the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Miami and zoo instructors accompanied the 13 educators on their trip.

The Earth Expeditions program provides graduate credit to classroom teachers and educators through direct study experience at research sites in Africa, Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean.

The project’s mission is to build an alliance of educators with firsthand knowledge of inquiry-driven, community-based learning for the benefit of ecological communities, student achievement, and global understanding.

Cline both encourages others to consider the program and hopes to go on another expedition, himself. “It has helped me grow personally,” he said.

“It’s broken down some stereotypes that I had in my mind based on growing up in central Ohio. It’s opened my eyes to other cultures, and that’s my hope for my students as well … that some of those barriers begin to be broken down for them at a young age.”

“One of the biggest things I realized is how disconnected we are from nature in the states. They’re on the exact opposite end of the spectrum.”

–Bob Cline

Source: http://columbuslocalnews.com/