Recent research topics
Here is a partial listing of some recent research topics for students participating in the spring Costa Rica Field Research program:
Click here to learn more about possible areas of research!
Social Sciences
- Effects of tourism on the ceramics industry
- The Costa Rican political party system in transition
- The development of rapid methods for community monitoring of water quality
- The theory and practice of health education in a rural school district
- The media and teenage body image in a rural town
- Women and microenterprise in the Nicoya region
- The teaching of creative writing in Costa Rican primary schools
- Changing role of rural women
- Citizen participation and the control of corruption
- Costa Rican Bilingual Education Plan
- Study of a major Costa Rican coffee company
- Archaeological excavations
- Government agricultural development policies and the small farmer
- Women's relationship to food in a neoliberal environment
- Effectiveness of government health programs
Natural Sciences
- Sea turtle hatching success in the Ostional Wildlife Refuge
- Contamination of river water
- Hummingbirds and heliconia pollination
- The effect of reforestation on plant and bird populations in a tropical rainforest
- The relationship between ecotourism and animal behavior in Palo Verde National Park
- Scarlet macaw chick development
- Primates in the Osa Peninsula
- Reproductive behavior of damselfish
- Termite damage in lowland regions
- Field guide to volcanic vegetation
- Acidic precipitation at Poás Volcano
- Ethnobotanical study of traditional medicinal plant usage
- Relationship between jaguars and marine turtles
Humanities
- The flute and modernization in Costa Rican music
- Oral histories of Miskito Indian refugees
- Poetry by Costa Rican women