Teacher
Researches Coffee Farming in Costa Rica
By Sarah Eidemiller
Shawn Modar, of Bethel Park, doesn't like
coffee. But during a week-long research trip
to Costa Rica, he forced himself to sample
some, only to spend the night wide awake.
"I don't think coffee is for me," said Mr.
Modar, who teaches ninth-grade earth and
space science at Greensburg Salem High
School.
But research into coffee plantations is his
cup of tea.
Mr. Modar and nine other Earthwatch
volunteers from the United States spent July
4 through 11 in the Los Santos region of
Costa Rica, about 35 miles south of San
Jose, in a project called "Costa Rican
Coffee From Community to Cup." The trip was
sponsored by the Clowes Fund, which promotes
appreciation of the natural environment.
Mr. Modar's expedition was funded by a
fellowship award from Earthwatch, the
world's largest environmental nonprofit
volunteer organization, based near Boston.
According to Mr. Modar, the project goal is
to study sustainable growth of coffee in the
Tarrazu region of Costa Rica and to identify
ways that farmers can make their farming
more sustainable while not sacrificing the
production that is so important to their
livelihood.
"I participated in this research project
because it was a chance for me to make a
meaningful contribution to an important
research project as well as a chance for me
to become a better teacher," he said.
"I think that it's important for teachers to
get out of the classroom from time to time
to gain some firsthand experience related to
subjects we teach."
Mr. Modar was an engineer before he became a
teacher, and in the summer, he works as an
engineer for DugganRhodes Group, a
consulting company in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Before participating in the trip, Mr. Modar
did not have a particular interest in
sustainable farming, but that lack of
interest, he said, was mostly related to a
lack of knowledge about the topic.
"During this trip, we learned a lot about
the state of agriculture," he said. "We tend
to take our supply of agricultural products
for granted and know very little about the
journey that these products take from seed
to supermarket shelf.
"This trip helped me to understand this
process and the potential economic and
environmental impacts of modern intensive
farming practices.
"When you combine knowledge of our modern
system of agriculture with our exponential
population growth, this idea of
sustainability becomes more than just
something for research scientists to be
interested in."
Mr. Modar and the Earthwatch volunteers
primarily focused on collecting soil for
analysis and coffee plant production data on
seven of 40 farms participating in the
study.
They also collected insects to measure
insect biodiversity in the coffee fields.
They set traps nightly for flying and ground
insects, then collected them the next
morning and returned to the lab to sort and
identify them.
"The goal was to compare insect biodiversity
in the coffee fields to insect biodiversity
in nearby patches of forest," he said.
"The idea is that in the forest, a
biologically diverse insect population forms
a system that exists in a sustainable way
without the need of pesticides or other
chemical inputs to control or balance their
populations. In an agricultural field, the
limited diversity of habitat and use of
pesticides can result in limited diversity
of insect, which can lead to unbalanced
populations that can be harmful to plant
production.
"If a biologically diverse insect population
could be replicated in the coffee field, it
would require fewer inputs such as
pesticides to maintain the fields."
Although the research was limited to
sustainable coffee growth, the general
principles of sustainability apply to all
types of agriculture, he added.
Mr. Modar's trip was only part of a very
long process. The data-collection portion of
the research has been ongoing for about two
years, he said, and plans are to continue.
The data eventually will be entered into a
spatial database, along with other data
collected by other teams over the past two
years. Researchers then will try to find
relationships between the many aspects of
the farms that were sampled, and these
results will lead to further research.
"The most interesting part of the trip was
the opportunity to stay in the community and
talk with the farmers about their work as
well as the importance of the research that
we were conducting on their farms," said Mr.
Modar, who is looking forward to sharing his
experiences with his students.
"I often try to encourage them to think like
scientists and not like science students. By
having the opportunity to participate in
scientific research, I hope to be more
prepared to stimulate this type of
atmosphere in my classroom."
Shawn Modar, of Bethel Park, doesn't like
coffee. But during a weeklong research trip
to Costa Rica, he forced himself to sample
some, only to spend the night wide awake.
"I don't think coffee is for me," said Mr.
Modar, who teaches ninth-grade earth and
space science at Greensburg Salem High
School.
But research into coffee plantations is his
cup of tea.
Mr. Modar and nine other Earthwatch
volunteers from the United States spent July
4 through 11 in the Los Santos region of
Costa Rica, about 35 miles south of San
Jose, in a project called "Costa Rican
Coffee From Community to Cup." The trip was
sponsored by the Clowes Fund, which promotes
appreciation of the natural environment.
Mr. Modar's expedition was funded by a
fellowship award from Earthwatch, the
world's largest environmental nonprofit
volunteer organization, based near Boston.
According to Mr. Modar, the project goal is
to study sustainable growth of coffee in the
Tarrazu region of Costa Rica and to identify
ways that farmers can make their farming
more sustainable while not sacrificing the
production that is so important to their
livelihood.
"I participated in this research project
because it was a chance for me to make a
meaningful contribution to an important
research project as well as a chance for me
to become a better teacher," he said.
"I think that it's important for teachers to
get out of the classroom from time to time
to gain some firsthand experience related to
subjects we teach."
Mr. Modar was an engineer before he became a
teacher, and in the summer, he works as an
engineer for DugganRhodes Group, a
consulting company in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Before participating in the trip, Mr. Modar
did not have a particular interest in
sustainable farming, but that lack of
interest, he said, was mostly related to a
lack of knowledge about the topic.
"During this trip, we learned a lot about
the state of agriculture," he said. "We tend
to take our supply of agricultural products
for granted and know very little about the
journey that these products take from seed
to supermarket shelf.
"This trip helped me to understand this
process and the potential economic and
environmental impacts of modern intensive
farming practices.
"When you combine knowledge of our modern
system of agriculture with our exponential
population growth, this idea of
sustainability becomes more than just
something for research scientists to be
interested in."
Mr. Modar and the Earthwatch volunteers
primarily focused on collecting soil for
analysis and coffee plant production data on
seven of 40 farms participating in the
study.
They also collected insects to measure
insect biodiversity in the coffee fields.
They set traps nightly for flying and ground
insects, then collected them the next
morning and returned to the lab to sort and
identify them.
"The goal was to compare insect biodiversity
in the coffee fields to insect biodiversity
in nearby patches of forest," he said.
"The idea is that in the forest, a
biologically diverse insect population forms
a system that exists in a sustainable way
without the need of pesticides or other
chemical inputs to control or balance their
populations. In an agricultural field, the
limited diversity of habitat and use of
pesticides can result in limited diversity
of insect, which can lead to unbalanced
populations that can be harmful to plant
production.
"If a biologically diverse insect population
could be replicated in the coffee field, it
would require fewer inputs such as
pesticides to maintain the fields."
Although the research was limited to
sustainable coffee growth, the general
principles of sustainability apply to all
types of agriculture, he added.
Mr. Modar's trip was only part of a very
long process. The data-collection portion of
the research has been ongoing for about two
years, he said, and plans are to continue.
The data eventually will be entered into a
spatial database, along with other data
collected by other teams over the past two
years. Researchers then will try to find
relationships between the many aspects of
the farms that were sampled, and these
results will lead to further research.
"The most interesting part of the trip was
the opportunity to stay in the community and
talk with the farmers about their work as
well as the importance of the research that
we were conducting on their farms," said Mr.
Modar, who is looking forward to sharing his
experiences with his students.
"I often try to encourage them to think like
scientists and not like science students. By
having the opportunity to participate in
scientific research, I hope to be more
prepared to stimulate this type of
atmosphere in my classroom." |
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