By Jessica Mussro, Program Assistant
Clemson Abroad
A Creative Inquiry (CI) group is tackling international conservation issues through educational resources. Working with Clemson biological sciences doctoral candidate Christie Sampson, the team creates educational materials related to human-elephant conflict (HEC), confrontations resulting from habitat destruction or disruption, leading to human and elephant casualties, crop damage, etc. The resources, designed by the CI group, address elephants’ role in local environments and encourage children—and their communities—to value elephants as part of their ecosystem.
“I think what motivated me to be a part of this group is its uniqueness,” psychology student Alex Scott reflected. “I wanted to do something I was interested in that could also make an impact. This project was a combination of those things.”
Students in the CI team come from a diverse set of majors, including psychology, biological sciences, art, and engineering.
“Working with my CI team allows me to expand the research in ways I couldn’t accomplish on my own,” Sampson notes. “My students are from a variety of different degrees programs, so everyone brings a unique perspective to our projects.”
As their first project, the group produced a children’s coloring book showing the importance of elephants in Myanmar’s ecosystems—a resource that caters to the country’s high literacy rate. Translated into Burmese, the book complements lesson plans and other materials, like the English alphabet book the group designed in fall 2016. The alphabet book serves as a dual resource for HEC awareness and English-language instruction.
“We wanted to incorporate everyday objects and concepts that they were familiar with, such as a ‘chinlone’ ball for ‘C,’” psychology student Gabriella Carpenter explained, “But a lot of the time certain words did not fit, or they took away from the structure of our book. At other times, we were unsure whether the children would interpret some of the story’s ideas the same way we would. As a result, we have revised our story at least 10 times.”
Sampson will bring the alphabet book to Myanmar communities during her upcoming site visit in May. “I’m really excited to take the A-Z book back with me. The children in Myanmar really enjoyed our previous books, which were translated into Burmese, but this type of book in particular was requested by one of the community elders to help the children learn English.”
In order to create these resources, participating students learn about the cultural norms and perceptions of their audience. “Being able to fine-tune our projects to be culturally relevant takes more work than I would have thought before joining the team,” says Scott. “Spending time learning about Myanmar and making culturally relevant material enhanced my understanding and background in cultural matters, and I definitely appreciate that.”
In future semesters, the CI team plans to finalize and seek copyrights for their current books, in addition to producing a video and working with local schools to discuss HEC. “This semester we have worked on finalizing our book and presenting a poster that we created at the Clemson Biological Sciences Annual Student Symposium,” says Carpenter. “Now we are planning a trip to a local Montessori school in hope of raising awareness about the ongoing human-elephant conflict that’s occurring in Asia.”
Prior to her Clemson career, Sampson collaborated with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in fieldwork projects, and her current work represents a joint project between Clemson University, the Smithsonian, and Myanmar’s Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF). This collaboration includes education and engagement initiatives for affected communities in the Bago Yoma region of Myanmar. The CI group, formed in spring 2016, focuses on this educational component. The CI group’s contributions to this project will positively impact Myanmar’s communities in multiple ways.
“Being able to provide this type of really important educational material not only helps local teachers and communities who don’t have access to many educational resources,” she said. “It also may help to reduce another big factor affecting the community: human-elephant conflict.”
