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Find Researchers, Teachers and Schools
The key to Seeds of Change Research's success was finding researchers, teachers and schools who understand that to fully engage in science (STEM), students need to question, explore and discover for themselves the workings of the natural world.
Seeds of Change Research programs are designed to:
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Give student time to delve deeply
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Run into dead ends (experience failure)
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Work out ways to recover (grit and resilience)
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Use the power of multiple minds (collaborate)
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Develop a coherent and logical presentation of their work (communicate).
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Seeds of Change Research immersion programs (science camp!) give students the opportunity to extricate themselves from their life’s logistical complexities and spend quality time focused on their research. Importantly, student motivation is also enhanced when they can see a direct connection between the work they are doing and “real life”. SOC Research provides this critical link by purposefully providing participants with essential microbial and genetic background information alongside the compelling leafcutter ant case study to demonstrate their relationship to the real-world issue of antimicrobial resistance.
Today more than 20 different schools and homeschool groups routinely send groups of 16 or more students and their teachers to participate in the 10-day Tropical Field Research science immersion program in Northern Costa Rica.
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Seeds of Change Research launched a bioinformatics program (comparative genetics) in 2014. Dr. Gabriel Vargas (University of Chicago) leads this research program in the Monteverde cloud forest in Costa Rica.
SOC Research partners with marine conservation groups in Costa Rica for the final days of the programs on the Pacific coast. These groups provide students the opportunity to work with sea turtle hatcheries, patrol for nesting sea turtles, and address other coastal ecosystem issues.
Dr. Adrian Pinto, Director of Seeds of Change Research Science Curriculum
Build a Tropical Research Station for High Schoolers
Our vision will be furthered once our tropical research campus (Boisclair Research Campus) is finished. Seeds of Change partners with a superbly run, eco-lodge (Finca la Anita) to provide food and housing for instructors, teachers and students. A new road from the eco-lodge leads to a promontory owned by Seeds of Change Research. Phase I construction of the classroom & science lab spaces along with 5 cabins is complete!
Team SOC Research is actively seeking foundation, educational, and institutional partners to fund Phase II construction, which will include our dining facility and student dorms. The new campus will double the number of student groups that can participate in the existing 10-day summer programs and will provide year-round research and programming opportunities.
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“Changing the Landscape of Secondary Science Education” involves connecting labs in US high schools to the future research taking place at the SOC Research Lab in Costa Rica: An effort designed to involve students in scientific discovery much, much earlier than our current educational systems allow.
Partner with Seeds of Change
Contact Seeds of Change Research (info@soc-cr.org) if you are interested in partnering with us. The goal is to establish a league of high schools that collaborates on scientific research at the first tropical research campus built exclusively to benefit high school students. Our mission is to encourage high school students to pursue a science-related careers.
Seeds of Change Tropical Research Lab Building Project