Our fellow, Kris Sales, shares his experiences at our site at Rabat American School, Morocco. Learn more about Kris's adventures below! If Kris's experience piques your interest in becoming a fellow yourself, apply here!
1st Month — Why Did You Become a Science Corps Fellow?
Kris's Science Corps Fellow timing was slightly unusual. Often, fellowships take place between the PhD exam and the next adventure, but he was two years into a researcher role when he spotted an advert on an Evolutionary Directory email list. Science Corps was attractive because it offered an experience abroad in a very different culture — he was ready for a change since his experience had been mainly laboratory evolutionary experiments, and he had spent nearly a decade learning and researching on the same University of East Anglia campus in Norwich. It also offered teaching as a core activity — while there wasn't an expectation for PhD students to teach, he helped as much as possible, and he loved sharing knowledge in classes where he was previously a student and getting school kids excited about the often astounding field of biology. And it offered a chance at promoting upward social mobility — only two people in his extended family went to university, and he didn't know what one was until he was 17, so he's strongly in favor of an inclusive meritocracy and supports anything that facilitates this.
Originally, Kris was heading out to the American School of Tangiers in early 2021, but like for most of the globe, Covid forced other plans. It was only possible this year to finally reach Morocco after travel restrictions eased and his life stabilized. In total, it was four years between applying and flying out! His new destination was the Rabat American School.
How's the 1st Month Gone?
It's been an adventure! This fellowship is quite unique — it's the first Sci Corps placement here, which means plenty of solution-finding and negotiating through uncertainties over logistics and a teaching "niche" (excuse the biology pun).
It's instantly impressive how passionate, experienced, friendly, and socially aware the teachers are. It's also impressive how busy the school timetable seems! Even from day one, a week before students arrived, most of Kris's time was filled with training sessions like positive discipline. As a host, RAS is well-resourced and well-connected.
Kris's Science Corps Fellowship placement attracted much intrigue from the teachers. To help give more context to the staff, he gave presentations about the charity, his research and teaching experience, and potential directions for his time here. He also sent out a Google poll survey for staff to vote on future collaborative activities and topics he could offer. He's very keen that resources are translated and distributed to other schools, and aims to repeat the survey with the students, too.
Besides helping build resources for biology lessons and acclimatizing, Kris has been learning about the local ecologies and has started to survey the local biodiversity. It's at about 100 species so far! The iconic Monarch butterflies, which migrate thousands of kilometers across the Americas, seem to have set up residence here, which surprised him. He's also encountered beautiful, yet potentially deadly, fat-tailed Androctonus scorpions. The recent earthquake had a devastating effect between Agadir and Marrakech, and the school has not been immune to its wider repercussions, with some of the community's friends and relatives being impacted. If the quake had happened two weeks later, the secondary school classes would have been on a week-long "Week Without Walls" camping trip in that area.
2nd Month — Preparation, Presentations, Plants, and Ponds
After presenting to all teaching staff about the charity, his background, and potential ideas for the school, Kris followed up with a questionnaire to determine how his time should be best spent. The most popular answers from around 50 topics were: more information about the species on the school's campus, nature walks, how do non-animals communicate, extinctions (especially from climate change), animal behavior, dealing with online misinformation, cool parasites, fixing the school's pond, and fixing the school's community garden. These now form the core areas that he will focus on.
Kris gathered or created over 150 resources that he has shared with teachers so far. Phew! These have mainly supported lesson topics such as food webs, evolution, plant taxonomy, making infographics, statistics, and climate change. He's helped diagnose the likely issues behind the garden and the pond, and he has designed improvement plans for student volunteers and maintenance staff to implement.
Kris has been sharing research news about female Moroccan scientists, insect sentience, and biases in artificial intelligence. It's been great when teachers come to him with photos of creatures to identify, research papers to be translated into simpler messages, and requests for his research to be included in their lessons. Students have also been approaching him with some great science questions!
Perhaps the most impactful and nerve-wracking thing Kris did this month was presenting and then being interviewed at the elementary school's assembly — an audience of over 200 children, parents, teachers, and the director. He made sure to slow down and simplify his language, and include body language, audience participation, and lots of pictures and video clips. His main messages were: scientists are now diverse, and any of the children could become one; it's OK to change what they want to do as they get older; and not to touch wild animals, as it's stressful for the animal and could be dangerous.
3rd Month — Field Ecology, Evolution, Climate Change, Statistics, and Infographics
The past weeks had been busy. All the classes at the school had introduction scientist talks, and Kris had been creating resources across several projects.
The ecological surveying continued, with almost 200 species found within 5 km of campus. The plan is to turn this data into a spreadsheet with their locations and various aspects of their biology. Excitingly, teachers from other state-funded schools had started reaching out through mutual colleagues or the RAS's Fulbright network.
The social science faculty requested Kris's help with infographics after they saw an animated video on his research during the staff talk. They wanted to improve the effectiveness of projects where students design posters and infographics to share their research with the public. He collated two dozen examples from his previous work with annotations for his choices of colors, shapes, and layouts, as well as information on science communication. A teacher running field trips to Svalbard, Norway, saw that he had worked there as a marine biologist for several months and requested he put together lessons on climate change, ecology, and conservation issues in that region.
Three of his larger projects included: turning evolutionary biology concepts into card and dice games; developing new lessons on the impacts and solutions of climate change; and conducting workshops on how scientists use data and statistics to draw conclusions, reach a consensus, and then share conclusions with the general public. Satisfyingly, enough resources and demonstrations were provided for the teachers to run these sessions without his presence.
A highlight was being invited on the elementary overnight trip to Khemisset, a rural area between Rabat and Meknes. Armed with a butterfly net, pots, and identification resources, Kris opportunistically caught insects and sampled plants to prompt short hands-on talks about how to identify them and what their significance is. The morning of the second day started with unveiling a moth trap. It was filled with live moths and highlighted that they aren't all boring brown ones that feed on clothes! It was satisfying to see teachers break off into small groups and run through problem-based exercises based on nature observations and ecological concepts that he'd created. They also visited a co-operative farm and the local souk (market), which presented some challenging animal welfare scenarios. Here, Kris was keen to promote respect for nature and conservation alongside an appreciation of the natural world.
4th Month — Holiday: 1,100 km Moroccan Road Trip
With his wife visiting over half-term, Kris and his wife decided to adventure by looping around North Morocco. From the current capital, Rabat, they traveled east through the Maamora Forest. This ancient woodland, extending 133,000 hectares, is the largest expanse of cork oak internationally. The forest is a valuable resource for Moroccans, providing cork, timber, and acorns. It's also important for life generally, capturing atmospheric carbon and providing habitat. Some of the more charismatic residents include gazelles, booted eagles, ravens, and Greek tortoises.
The road to Meknes was a gentle incline into an increasingly arid red-beige sandy landscape. Morocco has three historic capitals, and Meknes is relatively less known, having been the capital in the 1600s. Many of the attractions relate to projects initiated by Sultan Moulay Ismail, including his mausoleum, a grain store that could house 12,000 horses, and a prison said to be such a labyrinth that bars and doors weren't necessary.
With his background in forestry, the next stops at Azrou and Ifrane, high in the Middle Atlas mountains, were spectacular. Growing up to 40 m and with blue-green needles, Atlas cedars are common centerpieces in UK parks and manor gardens; however, Morocco has 80% of their global range.
Nurturing Curiosity
During his fellowship at the Rabat American School in Morocco, Kris Sales made a profound impact by engaging primary school children in the exploration of local flora and fauna. His interactive lessons ignited a passion for the environment among young learners, fostering curiosity about the natural world.
If Kris's experience piques your interest in becoming a fellow yourself, apply here!