Cyberhives

To help future generations of Costa Ricans understand their extraordinarily biodiverse surroundings, CRUSA/Amigos has teamed up with Costa Rica’s National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) to expand its Virtual Learning Communities (Cyberhives) project. The goal of the project is to incentivize the use of science and technology in the classroom, among teachers as well as primary and secondary school students, in a way that strengthens their learning processes and allows them to take advantage of new types of in-person and virtual learning.

Through the Cyberhives project, teachers and students participate in workshops at INBio’s state-of-the-art facilities, observing and working with parataxonomists, conservationists, and scientists as they carry out their research.

The program then reinforces lessons learned in the classroom by helping students develop research projects that focus on the biodiversity of their respective communities, providing technological tools through the Cyberhives website that aid in participants’ research and allow them to share their findings and experiences. By creating a forum where students and teachers can network with their peers, Cyberhives raises awareness of Costa Rica’s biodiversity and the threats facing it.

The Cyberhives project was successfully developed and implemented between 2005 and 2006 in five elementary schools and five high schools within the Costa Rica’s National System of Conservation Areas, reaching more than 600 students. By reinstating Cyberhives, CRUSA/Amigos and INBio seek to add 16 groups of students to the program. The expansion will target students in third, fifth, seventh, and tenth grades, continually reinforcing the importance of environmental education and biodiversity protection.

For more information on the Cyberhives project, visit the website (in Spanish) or read our project summary.