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Wednesday, January 20, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Students help teacher earn master’s degree
By Jim Anderson
Correspondent
After three years of
studying — taking exhaus-
tive exams, conducting field
research on Peck’s pen-
stamon in the Trout Creek
Conservation Area, carry-
ing out intensive scientific
investigations in the Amazon
and Costa Rica, hundreds
of hours teaching ecologi-
cal principles to her Sisters
High School science students
— Rima Givot now holds
a Master of Arts Degree
in Zoology from Miami
University through Project
Dragonfly’s Global Field
Program (GFP).
The GFP masters degree
is designed for educators and
other professionals from all
disciplines and settings who
are interested in working col-
laboratively to bring about
change in local and global
contexts.
Dragonfly and its U.S.
and international partner
institutions have engaged
more than 1,850 people since
it began in 2004 in first-hand
education and conservation
research in communities and
zoos throughout the country
and at critical field sites in
Africa, Australia, Asia and
the Americas.
On any given school day,
Givot can be found either in
her classroom, or out in the
Trout Creek Conservation
Area with her students
studying the ecosystems of
a diversity of species found
there. Whether it’s looking
for Jerusalem crickets under
a hollow log, nesting cavities
for sapsuckers, or Sisters’
signature bird, the white-
headed woodpecker, Givot
uses everything at her finger-
tips to teach and learn.
Through her Conserva-
tion Science & Community
course project entitled “Dis-
tribution of Peck’s Penste-
mon (Penstemon peckii)
Along Trout Creek in Trout
Creek Conservation Area
Ponderosa Pine Forest, Sis-
ters, Oregon,” Givot stud-
ied the population of Peck’s
penstemon, a rare native
wildflower along Trout and
Whychus creeks. She pro-
vided the results to the For-
est Service in order to help
them implement manage-
ment plans and practices to
protect this plant’s habitat.
As another part of her
master’s project — during
the 2014 summer vacation
from her high school teach-
ing duties — Givot went off
to Baja California to study
field methods in desert and
marine ecosystems.
Also, in summer 2014,
photo proviDeD
rima Givot in her element, standing in the massive trunk of el ceibo in
costa rica, one of 10 species of tropical trees in the family Malvaceae.
Rima chose to continue her
work through Ohio-based
Miami University’s (MU)
Global Field Program,
studying the biotic, physi-
cal, and cultural forces that
affect tropical biodiversity
at the Monteverde Cloud
Forest Reserve and La Selva
Biological Station, Costa
Rica.
The next year, she trav-
eled to the Amazon in sum-
mer 2015, also through the
Global Field Program from
Miami University’s Project
Dragonfly, studying how
communities are work-
ing to save the rain forest’s
delicate and irreplaceable
ecosystem.
Givot’s inquiries and her
dedication to education of
her students to investigate
and preserve their local bio-
logical diversity is one of the
key reasons she undertook a
master’s program.
Her statement regard-
ing her goals in earning a
Master of Arts from Miami
University is best understood
in this statement she gave
The Nugget back in 2014:
“With my Master Plan, I
hope to inspire my students,
community members, and
myself to conduct action
projects based on data col-
lected from ecology and/or
environment inquiry studies
that contribute to positive
environmental change in my
community.
“I want to help commu-
nity members — especially
my students — connect with
nature, the environment, and
their community. As a high
school teacher, part of my
Master Plan will be con-
ducted with my students, and
part of it will be based on
inquiry projects I do which
lead to action projects in the
community.
“The inquiry projects
my students conduct will be
studies that relate to local
ecology and/or environmen-
tal issues. Some studies will
be conducted in the local
forest. Inquiry studies I do
will increase my knowledge
of the local wildlife and
plant populations and the
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photo proviDeD
rima Givot celebrates with her son George chladek and mom Winnie Givot.
ecosystem in general. Based
on what I find, I will con-
duct action pieces to help
educate and involve the par-
ticipation of the community
in conservation.”
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