Proposed Renovation of Mata de Platano Field Station in the Karst Region of Puerto Rico, West Indies

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The Bayamón Campus of the Inter American University of Puerto Rico (IAUPR), a university that mainly serves a Hispanic community, is awarded a grant for the construction of three additional bedrooms and one bathroom at Mata de Plátano Field Station (MPFS) and Reserve in the Karst Region of Puerto Rico, West Indies. The Field Station and Reserve are located in the municipality of Arecibo, within the northern karst region of the island of Puerto Rico, and is considered one of the most biologically diverse regions on the island. MPFS serves all three programmatic components available to field stations, namely: research, education, and outreach. The new structure will allow continuing to increase the pool of scientists working in this region, the collaboration with other universities in Puerto Rico and abroad, and offer an improved educational platform from which we can provide outreach activities for K-16 students and the public in general. MPFS provides facilities that permit fundamental discoveries about environmental processes in the karst region; and promotes participation by local and visiting researchers and students. The last three years MPFS has seen more activity than the previous seven combined, making increasingly significant contributions to the knowledge of karst ecosystems. Some areas of research include animal ecology, plant biology, conservation, paleontology, parasitology, invasive species, and geology. The station also contributes to the education of diverse groups of people. At MPFS, field trips and workshops are offered on a regular basis to schools, universities, teachers, and community groups from the island and the United States. Workshops are offered on topics such as island ecology, bat and boa interactions, karts ecology, and plant reproductive biology, often in collaboration with other programs designed to improve the education of science and math teachers. Undergraduate courses in Ecology, World Vision and Literature, Essay and Narrative, and a graduate course on Population Ecology use the station regularly. Two children's books written around the "MPFS experience" are commonly used in schools where both the author of the books, as well as the scientist from MPFS, are often invited to offer talks. Numerous newspaper, TV and radio programs also help the outreach efforts.