Local to Global Connections
"From Boone, North Carolina to the Peruvian Andes"
ASU Teachers and Students, Local Teacher, and Grandfather Mountain Employee Travel to Peru!
"Traveling to Peru is one of the most valuable experiences I will take with me into my future classrooms. In an increasingly globally minded society, teachers can never have too much exposure to different cultures and geography. Learning in Peru has better equipped me to teach my students everything from the history, lifestyles, and ecosystems of South America to 21st century skills like collaboration and communication. There are infinite opportunities to learn in a new environment and plenty of lessons that we can bring back to our students!"
- Kely Morhard, Interim Teacher
In the summer of 2014, ASU Professor Dr. Baker Perry traveled with ASU students, Watauga County Teacher Darcy Grimes, and Grandfather Mountain Employee Jesse Pope to Peru for a 2 week learning experience.
The program introduced students and teachers to the rich Andean cultural history, the highly diverse physical environmental landscapes, and the associated human-environment interactions through direct field experience and research activities, readings, discussions, and meetings with guest speakers.
Program activities were based out of Cusco and the Sacred Valley during the first week, highlighted by an excursion to the world-famous archeological site at Machu Picchu. During the second week of the program, students and teachers were based in the Cordillera Vilcanota amidst rapidly changing glacierized landscapes.
An eight-day trek, with strenuous ascents to over 17,000 feet, allowed student and teacher participants to assist with ongoing atmospheric and glaciological field research activities. Students and teachers were also able to observe glacial processes first-hand and learn about cultural traditions from Quechua guides and community members.
The field excursions in the Sacred Valley and in the Cordillera Vilcanota provided an outstanding setting for the study of Andean mountain geography and the impacts of climate variability and change on tropical glaciers, ecosystems, and human populations.
"This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number AGS-1347179. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation."