In a recently published article in Applications in Plant Sciences, our team of professors, teachers, and students established methods for using a sound wave technology called sonic tomography to measure decay inside living trees. These procedures were tested through measurements on more than 1,800 living trees of 173 tropical rainforest tree species in the Republic of Panama. 
We developed and tested the methods during international field courses for high school, college, and graduate students, as well as high school teachers, using inquiry-based learning to teach molecular and field approaches to ecology, as well as foster an international pipeline to ecological research.
This methodology will now be used to help the City of Panama manage their urban forest.