By Mary Frances McCarthy
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 2/5/04)

"It has been absolutely incredible," Elizabeth Quintana, a freshman from Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington said in a call to the HERALD from the Panamanian rainforest. "All I see is green. There are howler monkeys howling at us. I don’t think they like us being here."

Quintana was chosen from applicants from across the United States to travel to Panama with a group of scientists and take part in The JASON Project. Quintana is spending two weeks studying the ecology of the rainforest and participating in live broadcasts sent to schools in the U.S.

Quintana learned about the JASON project when she was a student at St. Agnes in Arlington. There, her class participated in the project by tuning in to broadcasts; similar to what Quintana is now doing herself, of scientists in remote locations.

The JASON Project was created by Dr. Robert Ballard, scientist and oceanographer who developed tools to enable scientists to research and observe from remote locations. He wanted to enable schools to have the same experience and took thousands of students with him on a Mediterranean sea expedition in 1989 via live satellite broadcasts.

Quintana worked side-by-side with scientists and teachers studying the canopy and sampling trees. "I’ve seen pictures in National Geographic, but I never really thought of seeing this in real life," Quintana said.

When she returns to Bishop O’Connell, Quintana plans to tell her classmates that "We have to preserve our rain forests. The rain forests are home to thousands of animals and we have to protect it."