The Education Log of the 2011 Hearst Philippine 
Biodiversity Expedition 
Meg Burke and Roberta Brett 
Department of Teacher and Youth Education, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, 
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA 94118; Email: mburke@calacademy.org, rbrett@calacademy.org 
The 2011 Hearst Philippine Biodiversity Expedition was not only taxonomically 
multi-disciplinary and the largest expedition ever mounted by the California Acad¬ 
emy of Sciences and hosted by the Philippines, it also embedded extensive education¬ 
al outreach and significant media coverage as priority goals from the beginning. 
During the course of the seven-week expedition, over 900 people in the Philippines 
participated in community outreach and teacher professional development work¬ 
shops, conference sessions, and the capstone symposium. Countless others in the 
Philippines and the U.S. heard about the expedition through radio and television 
coverage and special events during and after the expedition. Three key factors con¬ 
tributed to the success of the in-country outreach: holding workshops near all of the 
communities where scientists were conducting their fieldwork; having both U.S. and 
Filipino scientists participate in the workshops; and showcasing live specimens 
wherever possible. The 2011 expedition has paved the way for ongoing research, edu¬ 
cation and conservation collaborations with the Philippines. 
The goal of the 2011 Hearst Philippine Biodiversity Expedition was to document biodiversity 
in a variety of habitats (shallow-water reefs, deep water communities, and montane forests) on and 
surrounding Luzon Island and across multiple disciplines (invertebrate zoology, ichthyology, 
botany, entomology, herpetology and mammalogy). Educational outreach and media coverage 
were embedded in the planning and goals from the beginning, as were collaboration with and par¬ 
ticipation by Filipino colleagues. Not only was this the largest expedition (in terms of number of 
scientists, educators and media personnel) ever launched by the California Academy of Sciences 
(CAS), it was also the largest and most diverse expedition to ever take place in the Philippines. A 
total of 94 scientists, educators and media personnel participated, 49 of whom were Filipino. 
Another key distinguishing feature of this expedition was the intent and successful execution of 
publically sharing preliminary field results immediately, before even leaving the countiy. To date, 
over 500 new species have been documented from the expedition, over 900 people attended edu¬ 
cational outreach events in the Philippines during the expedition, and thousands more have 
engaged with expedition programs, materials and results in the United States and at CAS. Exten¬ 
sive television, radio, online and print media coverage occurred during the expedition and contin¬ 
ued afterward. 
The Philippines was chosen for this historic expedition for a variety of reasons. First and fore¬ 
most, it is a biodiversity hotspot as designated by Conservation International, with great species 
diversity, high levels of endemism, and significant threats to the diversity. Equally as important, 
much of the diversity is not well documented. CAS also has a sfrong, established network of col¬ 
laborators in-countiy due to ongoing shallow-water reef research by Teny Gosliner and Gaiy 
Williams going back to 1992, primarily focused along the Verde Island Passage along the southern 
coast of Batangas Province. Since 2006, there have also been numerous trips to the Philippines by 
CAS staff for combined research, educational oiiti each and animal husbandry activities, supported 
by the 2004-2009, $2.5 million NSF grant Water is Life: Immersing the Public in Aquatic Diver¬ 
sity (ESI-0229918) that also helped build the living Philippine coral reef exhibit for the complete- 
539 
