Each CHANCE international field course includes approximately twenty-two select undergraduate and graduate students, science teachers, college professors and/or post-doctoral fellows from around the world who work with governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGO's), academic institutions, and/or businesses worldwide on an assortment of research-based ecological projects and conservation-based activities directly in the field. The CHANCE program currently has an international reach that includes the United States, China, Costa Rica, Cuba & Panama. We are currently establishing new partnerships in Australia.  

As for the CHANCE “research modules,” these freely available, web-based multimedia tools are designed to virtually engage both students and teachers (those who can’t physically participate in a field course) in a real-world research project with actual scientists from organizations, such as Hawk Mountain Sanctuary (Kempton, PA), Organization of Tropical Studies (La Selva., Costa Rica), Duke University, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Earth System Research Laboratory, who are investigating a specific environmental issue in the field.

The modules are currently being used by high school and college students worldwide and are encouraging them to go beyond the core content found in textbooks, and to consider the implications of the real research data from factual ecosystems they are analyzing. These virtual environments focus on the following global topics: invasive versus non-invasive plant species; raptor migration and protection; amphibians as indicators of environmental change; sea turtle nesting behaviors and survival; deciduous forest biodiversity and succession; species extinction; and, global climate change.