Enable an encounter with a rare Pterocarpus Forest

GlobalGiving Quarterly Report, Monday, December 1, 2019

Since our last report, at the end of September, professors and students from the School of Natural Sciences and Technology at the Turabo campus of the Ana G. Mendez University, and members of the faculty read, reviewed and critiqued the Spanish and English versions of the illustrated, 50-page draft script for the Pterocarpus Forest Tour App.  They conducted “fact checks”, and made recommendations about content, art and graphics that we have reviewed and have, in most instances, accepted.   The scientific review period was begun in mid-September and the report was submitted by the University on October 31^st. 

We are currently making the changes to content, in house, while awaiting for Virtualize.net to find new illustrations, make videos and take pictures to enhance the content as recommended by the university.  The in-house changes require some additional research about vines, a prominent Forest feature.  The scientific team at the University raised serious questions about our data.

The University, its faculty and its undergraduate and graduate students have conducted research projects within the Forest over the past several years.  

As you may recall, the original draft script consisted of interpretative, educational material on a variety of themes organized around 25 “stops”.  These stops start at the Forest entrance, continue along the ¾-mile elevated interior walkway and end at the Observation Tower and Visitors’ Gazebo.  The draft includes or suggests photographs, illustrations, videos and sounds appropriate to each stop or theme (which include topics like recycling in nature, the various methods of seed dispersal in the forest, and the impact of invasive species).    

After our last meeting with Virtualize.net, which is handling the technological components of the Forest Tour App, we discussed the draft script, the significant changes recommended by Turabo in terms of video and illustrative materials, and also instructed Virtualize.net to initiate the next steps in the technological parts of the process, including getting the applications in the Apple and Android systems.

The project was not advanced for a “dry run” by the end of October as originally planned.  Part of the process has been interrupted by fundraising efforts around #GivingTuesday (tomorrow, hence the late submission of our report).   We realized a while back that the project will be more  more expensive than originally budgeted.  

We expect to be able to debut the completed App at the end of January 2020 at a special Forest activity.