Classroom to Community: Women in STEM take on Environmental Sustainability Challenge

As we wrap up the Women in STEM program in Monteverde, students are tasked with applying STEM on a local level. Grouped by interest and collaborating closely with local businesses, students are tackling a local environmental sustainability challenge. Through the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math—the pillars of STEM—they are crafting action plans for their initiatives. Read more about what each group has to say about their project below: 

“Our project is to develop a procedure to test bananas for different pathogens. We want to determine possible diseases for local bananas, create steps for collecting samples, brainstorm strategies to prevent these diseases, and to test for resistance for pathogens. We are excited to possibly identify some diseases in the banana plants here, and find possible solutions.” - Sophia R.; “Healthy Bananas” with Amelia and Audrey 

“We’re doing an organic bug spray. We are going to create a sample of the lotion and an instagram post promoting the organic bug lotion. We are going to test a couple different ingredients and see how they work together and if they are helpful for keeping bugs away like clove, lavender, citronella, neem, or lemongrass. A couple of challenges we have faced are the lady from monteverde natural cosmetics that we interviewed said that they had already tried to do this before but they couldn’t get the oils and the water to mix in the spray so instead we are creating a lotion instead of a spray. Another challenge we faced is that we can’t do more than 4 ingredients in total in the lotion because more than that and it would be too much and too expensive for the Monteverde Natural Cosmetics to create.” - Anna; “Organic Bug Spray” with Tiana, Riya, and Sophia F., in collaboration with the Monteverde Natural Cosmetics Company 

“Our idea is vertical farming. Basically, we are going to restore the greenhouse to utilize and maximize the space. This design uses water sustainably. We want to create hanging planters that have holes in the bottom of them, so that water can drip to the plant beneath it, reusing water. We want to use as much space as possible in the green house while still allowing people to walk through the green house. This maximizes vertical space while sustainability uses water.” - Maya and Sophie; “Greenhouse Restoration” with Anastasia and Sammie 

“We are turning the abandoned chicken coop into an environment controlled greenhouse, which is going to be at a cooler and less humid climate than outside. We are going to use multiple cooling and dehumidifying techniques in order to cool the greenhouse down. It will be used to grow the fruits and vegetables, mainly berries, that may not naturally grow well in this climate.” - Marlo; “Chicken Coop” with Abi and Meredith 

“Our project is about creating a lotion that can be sustainably produced, packaged, and shipped at a reasonable price for consumers.” - Ren; “Beauty” with Sasha, Elle, and Jerry

“For our ES Challenge project, we are going to form a design for a community garden that can be planted in between patches of banana trees. These trees are behind the dining hall and contribute a lot of potassium to the soil. The idea would be that we would find potassium loving plants that we could plant in between the patches of banana trees so that it doesn’t go to waste. Plus, by adding more biodiversity to those areas, the health of the soil will increase. In the soil microbe lab we saw that the soil wasn’t great there, but it was good in the forest because of the biodiversity, so we think it will help a lot. Not only will we have a garden, but it will increase soil health.” - Sofia; “Community Garden” with Anayah, June and Lucia 

“We are designing an Aquaponics system for CIEE campus using the fish pond. It is a system that utilizes a natural system to grow plants. It is a sustainable way of agriculture with many benefits. Currently we are not facing any challenges, we work really well as a group. I am excited for the final design and model that we are building. I hope that CIEE learns something from our project and educate people on an efficient sustainable way of agriculture.” - Gabby, “Hydroponic Garden” with Brooke, Espy, and Millie 

Seeing the passion from the students for STEM related projects is exciting and inspiring. Each student is bringing in their own experiences and expertise to understand how to successfully plan an intervention in Monteverde. We are so excited to see the outcomes of collaboration, innovation, and creativity of our students.