Rio Christy Handziko, S.Pd.Si., M.Pd, a lecturer at the Department of Biology Education of UNY, participated in the Faculty Mentoring Network - Online Content for Experiential Learning of Tropical Systems (FMN - OCELOTS) 2024. Rio Christy has been teaching courses related to tropical ecology and researching intensively in the field of Tropical Ecology. This program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) USA, with the main organizers being Iowa State University (ISU) and the University of Michigan (IoM) in America.
The program also collaborates with the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES) to develop an online platform for use by all participants. This program is held regularly every year, with different participant quotas in each year of its implementation.
Rio Christy said that ESA-QUBES FMN - OCELOTS 2024 was attended by 10 participants from several countries including the United States of America, Brazil, Philippines, Chile, India and Indonesia. In this program, participants are invited to discuss together to develop an Ecology class curriculum that is adjusted to the ecology curriculum from ESA, and are encouraged to hold classes at their respective universities by applying a case study module or called the OCELOTS module through the interactive platform https://www.learngala.com which has been developed by ESA-QUBES. Participants were also given the opportunity to modify it to the local context in their respective countries.
Rio Christy specifically raised a case study on tropical marine ecosystems, especially on coral reef ecosystems. The OCELOTS case study is titled "Did you think the coral reef ecosystem has no sounds?, interpreting sounds in a coral reef" and can be accessed online through this link.
"In the mentoring process, participants were also facilitated to develop lesson plans with an environmental case study approach and pedagogy. The meeting process was conducted online and attended by mentors from Iowa State University (ISU) and University of Michigan (IoM) and other mentoring participants. This online meeting is held every 2 weeks to discuss together and provide input related to implementation plans, sharing teaching experiences and teaching modules that will be used. The discussion ended with a plan for publication of the teaching module and collaboration among participants. Mentoring participants who have completed all tasks and achieved implementation targets are then entitled to receive an Education Scholar certificate, stipend, and are directed to become mentors for FMN - OCELOTS participants in the following year. Participants who complete this program well also get the opportunity to join the case study module development program through the Incubator module program", he said.
The participation and support for Rio Christy to join this program is a form of UNY's commitment to improve the quality of education, strengthen marine literacy and further encourage awareness of the threats and challenges of climate change to the preservation of tropical ecosystems.
