Three Smithtown Teachers Chosen for Costa Rica Trip

Three local teachers will travel to Costa Rica this summer as part of a sponsored trip to bring field data collection and scientific protocol methods into the classroom.

Elizabeth Platt, a teacher at ; Kimberly Christian, at ; and Lillian Vitalo of  are three of 16 high school and middle school science teachers - from Long Island to southern California - who are partaking in the inaugural trip, which is sponsored by Northrop Grumman and Conservation International. Rounding out their team of four will be Adrienne Davis of Brentwood's Ross High School.

In July, the teams will travel to La Selva Biological Station and Braulio Carrillo National Park in the Central American country, and will work with scientists in the field to get a hands-on experience.

"We expect this program will help cultivate the next generation of environmental stewards," said Conservation International VP Sandy Andelman.

For Platt, the trip off-Island shouldn't be too strange an experience. According to a recent article in the Times of Smithtown, she recently got back from a trip visiting the Gulf of Mexico with fellow teachers, where they worked with fellow scientists battling coastal erosion loss. The lessons hit close to home, the article states, as coastal erosion affects .

Click here to read the article on The Times of Smithtown.