Geokichia spiloptera | Ian Lockwood

Posts Tagged ‘Geokichia spiloptera’

Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands WWW Experience 2019

Horton Plains cloud forest canopy study in black & white.

In the third week of January every year I have the opportunity and privilege of being involved in some rather cool teaching and learning in our home of Sri Lanka. The Experience Sri Lanka! Week Without Walls program gives OSC teachers the opportunity to share our passion for adventure, discovery and learning beyond the barriers of our classrooms. This year I once again led a group of students and teachers in and around the Central Highlands while exploring themes of landscape an ecology through an interdisciplinary unit involving visual arts and science (ecology).

Cloud forest from below.

Cloud forest from above.

Sri Lanka White Eye (Zosterops ceylonensis) at Victoria Park in Nuwara Eliya.

Giant Grizzled Squirrel (Ratufa macroura) near to Belihuloya.

Pied thrush (Geokichla wardii) at Victoria Park in Nuwara Eliya.

Spot Winged Thrush (Geokichia spiloptera) at Horton Plains National Park.

Sri Lanka Bush Warbler (Elaphrornis palliseri) at Horton Plains National Park

The Sri Lanka Central Highlands trip, was an experience of significance with many important group and individual learning highlights. This choice WWW learning experience is part of the broader secondary school Week Without Walls program that I have been coordinating since its inception. OSC’s WWW program was first run in January 2010 as an outgrowth of the MYP outdoor education program (2003-2010) and has now matured into a key experiential learning highlight for all of the secondary school. Through a variety of grade-level and choice experiences there are several goals that define the program:

Fulfill the OSC mission statement of developing the whole person within a safe environment.
Expose students to our host country Sri Lanka’s culture and environment.
Enable opportunities for service learning and outdoor education.
Use Interdisciplinary Units (IDUs) to support and strengthen existing secondary curriculum (including the DP CAS program) for the benefit of student learning.

The five-day excursion into Sri Lanka’s high elevation interior exemplified some of the best outcomes of field-based learning. The learning focus was on using photo documentation to better understand the ecology and landscape of Sri Lanka’s mountainous interior. All of the students had some sort of DSLR or point and shoot camera where they could learn basic controls and composition as we had different encounters. This year we had 13 students and three of us adults to guide them. I was supported by Loretta Duncan and Desline Attanayake who both played key roles in organization and participating in all of our activities. We also had two drivers from Yamuna Travels who got us to our different destinations safely. The students were enthusiastic and cooperative as we took on new challenges every day. Accommodation for the first three nights was on the cozy-rustic side of things, but on the last night the group was treated to very comfortable rooms in Nuwara Eliya’s St. Andrew’s Jetwing hotel.

Pseudophilautus viridis (not femoralis as previously published) at Nuwara Eliya.

(Pseudophilautus microtympanum) at Horton Plains National Park.

(Pseudophilautus microtympanum) at St. Andrews/Pidurutalagala.

(Pseudophilautus schmarda) at St. Andrews/Pidurutalagala.

Taruga_eques_at_Nuwara_Eliya_2a(MR)(01_19)

Montane Hour Class Fog (Taruga eques) at St. Andrews/Pidurutalagala.

We experienced consistently clear, beautiful weather with classic, crisp winter conditions. There had been frost earlier in the month but by the time that we got to the high reaches of the dormitory neat Mahaeliya bungalow in Horton Plains it was at least 10-15 degrees C° above freezing. The highlight of the time in Horton Plains was climbing the 2^nd and 3^rd highest mountains in Sri Lanka. Kirigalpotta (2,388 m) was the focus of a seven-hour round trip hike on Wednesday and Totupola Kanda (2,360m) was a short walk that we did on Thursday morning. For good measure we visited Sri Lanka’s highest peak Pidurutalagala (albeit by van, as walking is not allowed) on the final morning of the experience. On all of these morning we were blessed with exquisitely clear conditions that allowed for crystal clear views to Sri Pada and the neigboring ridges.