Students are preparing to go and talk at schools.

This week in Bahia I have been focusing on educating the educators. That is to say that my students are preparing to go and talk at schools about what they have learned. The two themes are Mangroves and Dry Tropical Forests. We spent both Tuesday and Thursday preparing materials, posters and discussing activities and ways to present information. 

I am working with Marcelo to organize times that we can go to the elementary schools and do a presentation as well as a more hands-on day to show the kids how to plant mangroves or show the richness of the dry tropical forests and uses of Palo Santo. This is the way in which I hope to spread the knowledge from my students back into the community. 

I am also organizing a minga (workday) to make a mural with Galielo and involve both my students and others in Bahia. The mural will be about the resources of the region and the reasons and ways to protect them. My students are also preparing to go on the radio and share some of what they are learning. So the focus of the project right now is community education, but at the same time we continue  with the class’ education. 

I have almost made it through the information for the first quarter. The topics that we have covered thus far are plants and habitats of the region, animals,  and art. We are starting on the watersheds, contamination of the estuary, water treatment, etc. We are pretty much on track as far as the schedule goes and I hope to keep the community service projects outside of the regular classroom time so that we can continue to focus on the class’ education as well their community teaching.

Kristen