Natural history and biology professor Robert Goodman will soon be off to Costa Rica for the Winter 2016 semester study abroad program.
Goodman will be visiting Costa Rica with Citrus’s study abroad program for the second time since his first visit in 2009.
Goodman describes it as a life changing experience.
“You’ve got all the wildlife there: birds, mammals, reptiles, beautiful, beautiful tropical forests, whether it’s deciduous forests or rain forests or cloud forests. Geology is amazing there. There’s a lot of volcanism,” Goodman said. “But you tie that all together with Costa Rican culture and it’s just a fantastic environment to be in.”
Students involved in the program will begin their adventure at La Selva Biological Station, and continue on to Tortuguero National Park, Coronado, Arenel Volcano and Monteverde Cloud Forest.
Their schedule will include day and night hikes, boat rides through rivers and canals, volunteer work, tree planting in tropical forests and day excursions to coffee plantations and volcanoes. He will be teaching environmental science and will tie the subject into their many excursions.
With 25 percent of Costa Rica being protected as national parks and reserves, his classes will be looking for every kind of animal, plant and insect.
Students will have an opportunity for a great educational experience with Goodman on this trip.
“He is an excellent professor,” said Joaquina Hernandez, 22, biology major. “His teaching style is great because he makes the lectures fun with all his stories that are relevant to the topic.”
The trip will run from Jan. 11 through Feb. 6.
Now in his 15th year as a full time professor, Goodman has taught more than 30 different classes at Citrus College.
Goodman received his master’s at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in biological sciences with an emphasis on wildlife.
He specializes in herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians.
“When you’re an undergraduate, you have aspirations to do something with your life,” Goodman said. “My aspiration was to become an anesthesiologist, but then I took a few classes that just completely changed my life.”
While studying at Cal Poly, he spent a lot of his time as teaching assistant, which helped lead him to his career as a science educator.
“When I was in school, not knowing I was going to be a teacher, and wanting to be a wildlife biologist, I made sure that I tried to take as many diverse classes as I possibly could to be as well rounded as possible,” Goodman said.
All of those classes came in handy when he arrived at Citrus in 1997.
More than 20 natural history classes were being offered and he taught 15 of them.
He was also put in charge of the forestry program, which is now called Wild Land Resources and Forestry.
He teaches six of the seven forestry classes: Intro to Forestry, Forest Ecology, Plant Identification, Outdoor Recreation, Wild Land Fire Management and Principles of Wildlife Management and Ecology.
In his forestry and other natural history classes, Goodman takes his students on field trips, varying from the high desert and forests to botanical gardens.
The field trip locations change each semester.
“I went from wanting to be a doctor to help people to wanting to be a biologist saving the environment and the animals in that environment because a healthy environment means a healthier human society,” Goodman said.
There are many influences in Goodman’s life that he credits for helping him succeed and becoming the person he is today.
Many of the teachers he had at Cal Poly Pomona have inspired him and were role models, so much that he fashioned his teaching after some of them.
Goodman himself has impacted the lives of some of his students with more than just his teachings.
Josue M. Blanco, who graduated from Citrus in 2014, has kept in touch with Goodman since he had him as a lab instructor for anatomy.
“He is passionate about teaching, right off the back you can tell,” he said. “I’ve stayed in contact with him. We share fishing stories and salsa recipes.”
Goodman will be the Faculty Learning Institute December featured faculty member.
Aside from teaching, he has coached football for the last nine years.
Goodman is also a coauthor to the textbook, “Key to Coastal & Chaparral: Flowering Plants of Southern California” which he plans to use in his plant identification class and will hopefully be ready in the spring.
Along with this, he also has 15 other publications.
There are no signs of stopping for Goodman, however.
“I will continue to grow the Wildland Resources and Forestry program,” he said. “I plan on being at Citrus for as long as possible.”
