For nearly 20 years, the US Forest Service and the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras have collaborated on the Schoolyard LTER Program to promote K-12 curriculum development in science and mathematics throughout Puerto Rico. These efforts have improved teacher and student training in environmental sciences and particularly in tropical forest ecology, in addition to increasing student diversity in these disciplines in the United States. During the past two decades schools from four municipalities have been involved in the LUQ Schoolyard LTER program: Barranquitas, Naranjito, Florida and Guánica. Self-motivated teachers from each of these schools, with the assistance of their students, have established long-term plots on public and private lands near their schools to study forest structure and dynamics. In some schools, the outcomes of these investigations have been outstanding, with teachers producing manuscripts published in a peer-reviewed journal (and attending national conferences. To become a volunteer with School Yard LTER please contact Noelia Baez Rodriguez, Educational Coordinator at nbaez@ites.upr.edu
Publications in 2012 Acta Científica: **teachers from the LUQ Schoolyard
Elliot López Machado** Keyla Soto Hidalgo y Tamara Heartsill-Scalley. 2012. Composición y estructura de un bosque tropical urbano en el karso norteño de Puerto Rico. Acta Científica Vol 26 1-3. página 54-67
M.F. Barberena-Arias, J. Ortiz-Zayas, C. Abad**, G. Almódovar**, E. López, M. Rodríguez, M. Samó, G. Dávila y L. Troche. 2012. Comparación de la fauna de artrópodos terrestres entre pastizales y bosques dominados por el tulipán africano (Spathodea campanulata), en tres zonas del carso norteño de Puerto Rico 68 M.F. Acta Científica Vol 26 1-3. páginas 68-79
Clara Abad**.2012.La composición de la comunidad de aves en un bosque tropical urbano. Acta Científica Vol 26 1-3. páginas 87-97
Schools
Resources related to K-12 education and the LTER Network
http://ecoplexity.org/ Ecoplexity Teaching Ecologycal Complexity
http://www.elyunque.net/
http://www.lternet.edu/Education LTER LNO Education page
http://educationlibrary.lternet.edu/ LTER Digital Library
http://epscor.w3.uvm.edu/2/node/891 VT EPSCoR: Reserach On Adaptation To climate Change, Research Experiences for highs schools and teachers
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/
http://www.nsf.gov/