Cooper's Blog

 Hi! My name is Cooper Duckworth and I am a rising senior at Mercy Academy! I have been having so much fun in Costa Rica so far, and I can't wait for the rest of this trip! Today was a super science-heavy day where we went up to the lab right after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Except for our hour of free time (where I think we all slept the best we ever have) we were in the lab working hard. Today, we came up with our own research questions and proposals in our groups. My group is asking the question of whether or not leaf cutting ants can cut grass and use it as its fuel for the fungus that the ants grow. Although the day was a super long day, we had a coffee break around 3:45 were we all got to drink coffee and hot chocolate.  I mixed them together and it may have been the best decision I have ever made. It was SO GOOD. All of the meals and snacks we've had have been so great! They also have these delicious juices with every meal with fresh fruit and they are incredible. At the end of the evening, we presented our proposals to the whole group and got lots of feedback from all of the research professionals, which was super informative and a little intimidating.  It was a very rainy day, so I had to wear my St. X poncho and I got some weird looks and a few comments (especially from the Lex Cath teacher, a Trinity alum



). I took some great pictures, but I can't add any because my phone is remaining strictly on Airplane mode. Tomorrow my group is going swimming in a waterfall and I am so excited! I can't wait to see what we're going to do on the rest of the trip!

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