Pictured from left: Laura Toro-González, Viviana Londoño-Lemos, and Ariadna Mondragón-Botero.
When travel came to a halt during the pandemic, it posed a particular challenge for researchers who do fieldwork in other countries. No longer able to make the trek to their sites, they had to pivot. Members of Jennifer Powers’ lab decided to get creative. Inspired by Powers’ own children’s book, Night and Day in the Rainforest, they began exploring ways to connect with the communities where they conducted their research.
”I’m so proud of this book. This effort was entirely driven by the students, who leveraged their own knowledge of ecology and passion for tropical dry forests. They collaborated with graphic designers and elementary school teachers to make sure that the content and activities are appropriate for the target age group of children. The truth is, the book is so beautiful, people of any age can enjoy it and learn something,” says Powers, a professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology and a leading expert on dry tropical forests. In addition to authoring and illustrating her own book, she teaches others how to bring art and science together.
At first, members of the lab explored the idea of an activity book that could be distributed to schools in communities near research sites. Over time, the scope expanded and they set their sights on a children’s storybook. As things began to open back up, a number of lab members shifted gears to focus on their individual research efforts, but enthusiasm for the project remained strong among three graduate students — Viviana Londoño-Lemos, Ariadna Mondragón-Botero, and Laura Toro-González. The trio recruited Katie LeGare, then an undergraduate researcher in the lab, to produce the watercolor paintings that populate the pages of the storybook.
Pizotito & the Wonders of the Dry Forest is the result of that collaboration. The main character, a young coatamundi named Pizotito, goes on a round-the-world quest visiting eight distinct dry tropical forests, from Madagascar to Mexico, corresponding to actual field research sites where members of the Powers lab have worked.
In each chapter, Pizotito meets an animal common to the dry tropical forests of the region. In Colombia, it’s a jaguar. In Vietnam, an elephant. In India, a tiger. The authors decided to highlight two ecological concepts unique to the area to underscore what makes each area unique while highlighting important concepts like deforestation, wildlife corridors, adaptation, wildfire, and much more. “The dry forests in Puerto Rico are very impacted by hurricanes,” says Londoño-Lemos. “That doesn’t happen in Vietnam or Colombia.”
They interviewed researchers working in each of the eight areas to identify which concepts made most sense and worked with elementary school teachers to ensure young readers would be able to grasp the meaning.
The book is being translated into Spanish, French, German, and Vietnamese. Their goal is to get it into the hands of teachers and children, especially in communities in and around the dry tropical forests highlighted in the book.
“One of the main purposes when we started all of this was to connect to our field sites and be a resource for rural teachers to teach with,” says Londoño-Lemos, who points out that these sites are often in areas where educators and students don’t have access to many books. With that in mind, the authors plan to print and distribute copies, and make a digital version of the book available online free of charge along with activities relating to the ecological concepts.
Mondragón-Botero and Toro-González have since graduated and moved on to new endeavors. But the experience left a lasting impression. “Even though we all study tropical dry forests and have published several papers about the ecology of this ecosystem, this book taught us how to better communicate our science and key ecological concepts to kids,” says Toro-González. “Working with a multidisciplinary and diverse team was such an enlightening experience. We got to learn about pedagogy, design, and communication strategies.” –Stephanie Xenos