Ecuador

Since the late 1980s Bethel University has routinely offered a study-abroad course in Ecuador. Though the specific content of the course has changed over time, it has focussed on Ecology and human impacts for nearly two decades. As a part of this ongoing course, students are able to enroll in an additional credit associated with a research project they carry out while in country. Over the past couple of years, these projects have expanded to include several open-source instruments we have either fully developed or modified from other sources. To date the two instruments include a double-beam visible spectrophotometer that utilizes a smartphone camera for the detector and an aerosol particle counter with temperature, pressure, and carbon dioxide sensors.

Info about January 2027

If you're interested in participating in this course, please start by taking a look at this informational video on the left. This video is specific to January 2027 and it covers general details about the trip, cost, safety, and itinerary.

You can also email me directly at b-winters@bethel.edu to express interest or ask any questions you have.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Travel Vlog

Starting in 2026, students and faculty began creating a travel vlog to share with family and friends back home. This was a fun and interesting way to both experience the trip together and process what we were seeing and learning. We are looking forward to continuing this project in the future and hope to expand to include a brief blog reflection for each day too. Take a look! Click on this link or search for @DoctorWinters on YouTube.

Take a look at this video from our January 2019 trip to Ecuador. We visited the capitol city of Quito and went on several excursions from there to visit the Amazon rainforest, the Galapagos islands, the cloud forest, Otavalo market, and Antisana ecological reserve. The biodiversity in this region of the globe is unparalleled anywhere and the scientific and historic significance of the Galapagos islands is absolutely unique. What an amazing trip!

Student Research Projects

For years, Biology and Environmental Science students engage in research while we visit the Amazon region of Ecuador. These projects range in content and scope from behavioral observations of organisms in the region to the nutrient adsorption capacities of differing soil types and everything in between. Two of the instruments we have developed for use in these research projects are shown below. We continue to work toward developing other open-source instruments such as gas chromatographs, smartphone Raman spectrophotometers, and 3D printable optical microscopes.

Double-beam spectrophotometer

A double-beam arrangement was achieved by setting two cuvettes side-by-side and utilizing the same single-LED source, absorbance measurements can be made by normalizing the sample power to the full reference power

https://publiclab.org/notes/B-winters/12-14-2018/revised-3d-printable-mini-spectrometer

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2021.e00232

Aerosol particle counter

Modifications to the enclosure, components, and Arduino script were made to a similar device found on PublicLab.org, in homage to the original, the name was kept, https://publiclab.org/notes/cfastie/11-28-2018/nano-particle-monitoring

01 Ecuador Intro.pptx

About the Course

This slide show provides a brief introduction to the course inculding some pictures, a rough itinerary, course format and content, packing suggestions, and a list of related shows and movies to get you excited to particiapte.

01 Ecuador Packing List.docx

Course Packing List

This is the suggested packing list handed out each year by the course instructors. There are a lot of helpful suggestions and possible alternative suggestions for participants looking to minimize purchases and total cost.

01 Participant Packing Ideas.pdf

Student Annotations

These suggestions/annotations come from a student participant after the course. There are some very good suggestions here also. I am always willing to offer my insight about the two lists and what I ACTUALLY bring.