Southeast Valley students visit Ecuador
Spanish teacher organizes epic field trip
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GOWRIE -- Leah Applebee kept the tradition of bringing Southeast Valley High School students on a once-in-a-lifetime journey alive this summer.
Applebee, a Spanish teacher at the school, brought Oliver Riehl, Halle Crampton, Dax Maschino, Elizabeth Thompson and Taylor Willardson to Ecuador, with Brian Johnson and Katie Riehl joining them on the trip.
The group visited Quito, Tena, Banos, Cotopaxi and Mindo, all located within Ecuador. Quito is the capital of the country, Cotopaxi is a mountain range and Mindo is a village in the Andes Mountains.
During a tour of Ecuador, they were able to witness experiments such as water flow and balance chances on each side of the equator line, along with seeing volcanic hot springs with natural water in pools of different temperatures that are heated naturally by the volcano.
Cotopaxi is the second-highest summit in Ecuador, reaching over 19,000 feet. It is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains. They did a two-hour hike around the base of the volcano, seeing a herd of wild horses.
A three-day stay in the Amazon included white water rafting, wildlife such as wild monkeys, birds, bullet ants and caimans, an animal rescue and rehabilitation center, and the process of mining for gold.
"The coolest part of that part of the trip was that any time we left the lodge on the edge of the river to do anything, we left in a small boat," Applebee said. "That was our only mode of transportation."
Over her years as a teacher, Applebee has heard the constant question of "why?" when it comes to learning in the room. That is one of the main reasons she continues to do this.
"For Spanish, it's easy on these trips because they hear it constantly," she said. "In the music, when they have to use it themselves and other times. But it also goes into other subjects like history, biology and science, just to name a few.
"They see things in person they only read about in books or see in videos. On our trip, we found things that we had talked about, like the bullet ant and the touch-sensitive plants that retract when touched.
"They got to be close to these things and see them with their own eyes."
In addition to the educational benefits, the trip allowed students to see more of the world.
"They got to see how other places function differently than they've ever seen," Applebee said. "Having a bigger worldview is a huge advantage at such a young age. The students all loved the trip and definitely gained experience and knowledge."
Applebee has been teaching since 2009, joining the Southeast Valley school district in 2017. She is a graduate of Dordt College and, in recent years, has taken students to the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.