Education « Galapagos ICE

Education

Our Work | Health & Wellness | Education | Environment

Here are some of our past projects focusing on Education.

DELIA IBARRA ELEMENTARY

Delia Ibarra Elementary, in the Highlands of Santa Rosa, Isla Santa Cruz, was the first school to be “adopted” by Galapagos ICE, based on its undersupported, underperforming status. In the past few years, our organization has made significant strides in rehabilitating the school’s buildings, enhancing curricula and programming, and furnishing necessary equipment and supplies to provide a better learning environment for the school’s students. We have worked in concert with the school administration and local and international organizations to identify and fix safety hazards around the property, and to provide adequate chairs and desks, writing supplies, text books, maps, and other media aids. Future plans for Galapagos ICE include similar projects at Julio Puebla Elementary School in Cascajo and Oswaldo Guayasamin Elementary School in Puerto Ayora.

Initial Inspection and Inventory

Fall 2006: Emily Pozo, Mauricio Pozo and Jhonny Paredes of Puerto Ayora, and Amelia Howitt and Richard Cotter of New Zealand, performed an inventory and documented structural/maintenance issues on the school grounds. Among their findings were woefully inadequate school supplies (such as writing utensils and paper), a shortage of usable desks and chairs, outdated textbooks, and numerous safety hazards to students and faculty. Dangerous electric wires sagged over the playground, and the electrical system within the school was rife with broken fixtures and wires exposed to water from leaky roofs. Mildew covered the walls, and the small supply of school athletic equipment was largely rusted and broken.

Maintenance/Painting

Spring 2007: Emily and Mauricio Pozo, Jill Blythe, and ten local volunteers cleaned and painted all interior and exterior areas of the school, using colors chosen by teachers and students, and effected minor repairs throughout the building. Galapagos ICE hired a local utility worker to rework the entire electrical system within the building, to bury a dangerous electrical cable in the playground area, and to install linoleum flooring in the computer room.

Summer 2007: Eleven volunteers from Mt. Juliet, TN, painted Delia Ibarra’s basketball court, built a ping-pong table for students, and painted the community coliseum in Santa Rosa. Funds or these improvements came from a “Penny War” conducted by children from Mt. Juliet Christian Academy, which raised nearly $3000 for Galapagos ICE.

Music, Maps, Crafts and School Supplies

2008: Making a second trip to the Islands to help Galapagos ICE, Paul Gunn of Mt. Juliet, TN, led a group of seven volunteers who accomplished repairs and improvements to the school, in addition to performing work on the Santa Rosa Community Center. Among the volunteers in the group were: Dan Jones, Josiah Gibbs, Cappi Gibbs, Elizabeth Whited, Molly Choate and returning volunteers Bill Choate and Callie Palmer. Also in the group was Daniel Shedd, who arrived in the Islands one month before the other volunteers, to teach English as a Second Language. During their stay, the volunteers constructed tables for the school, installed a large Spanish-language world map in the cafeteria, distributed donations of school bags filled with supplies, and conducted music lessons for students using donated musical instruments: 2 guitars, several recorders, and a large set of shakers and hand bells. Additionally, Callie and Molly, who are Special Education student teachers, spent time visiting with special-needs children during their stay.

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL)

At the request of Cesar Lombeida, Director of the Supervision of Education in the Galapagos, Galapagos ICE has provided ongoing assistance to evaluate and improve ESL programs in the Galapagos and to supply additional volunteer instructors. To date, Galapagos ICE has placed over 50 volunteers in positions of ESL instruction.

ESL Teacher Workshops

2006: Melissa Timko, an American elementary school teacher (and Teacher of the Year, Victor County, CA), ran a series of teacher workshops on classroom management strategies and proven class activities for ESL teachers at Colegio San Francisco. In addition to running the workshops, Ms. Timko also observed classes and offered pedagogical advice to teachers, and worked with the Directorate of Education to develop a stronger ESL curriculum for Galapagos elementary schools. Local TV Channel 9 News in Puerto Ayora ran multiple segments on Ms. Timko’s workshops and the importance of ESL instruction on the Islands.

2007: Elizabeth Smolcic, Director of the Intensive English Program at Juniata College (Huntingdon, PA), performed an evaluation ESL instruction in the Islands, and made recommendations for improving pronunciation, oral fluency, and listening comprehension of local ESL teachers. She also noted that instructors are consistently undersupplied with essential ESL teaching materials.

COMPUTER LITERACY

2008: Galapagos ICE volunteer Dries Habez (Belgium) worked with the Municipality’s Department of Communication to improve the computer skills of both municipality workers and teachers at Loma Linda High School. In groups of eight to fifteen people at a time, Mr. Habez introduced individuals to the Windows operating system, internet basics, how to download pictures, Microsoft Word basics, and Excel basics.

ESL and Computer Literacy

2007: Thirty-seven students and teachers from Rollins College in Florida, USA, volunteered a week of instruction in Computer Literacy and English as a Second Language and to Miguel Cazares High School students. With the help of the high school students, Rollins volunteers set up a computer lab of fourteen PCs with internet connections. Miguel Cazares students were then taught how to browse the web for information, and how to use such programs as Microsoft Word, Excel, Photoshop, and Premiere. Rollins College also gave the school digital cameras and video cameras.

Lectures on Satellites and Astronomy

2007: Donato Sciacovelli (Italy), an engineer at the European Space Agency, offered a series of lectures on satellites, astronomy, and physics to students at Loma Linda High School, Galapagos National High School, and Tomas de Berlanga High School, as well as to the general public at the municipality saloon. Local TV news Channel 9 covered the program in multiple segments as it was unfolding.

Foreign Culture Lectures

2007: Kana Imuta (Japan) gave presentations to two different student-age groups at Loma Linda School, on Japanese geography, culture, and ecology, in an effort to encourage students’ interest in cultures beyond their islands. Over three hundred individuals attended. Ms. Imuta also presented videotapes of Japanese drumming, sang Japanese folksongs with another Japanese musician and shared sushi rolls with the audience members, as sample of Japanese cuisine. Local TV news Channel 9 interviewed Ms. Imuta, as well as the excited groups of students in attendance.

Art Education

2006: Fine artist Kerrigan Kessler (USA) and Jon Jerquist USA), a carpenter, taught a silk-screening workshop to sixth-graders at Delia Ibarra Elementary, with materials donated by Standard Screening in New York. Each student designed and screened his or her own T-shirt. Galapagos ICE sold prints of the t-shirts and bought additional art supplies for the school with the proceeds.

Teacher Training on Mathematics

2007: Julianne Secko (USA) taught new classroom activities, homework assignments, and pedagogical theories to Galapagos mathematics teachers at San Francisco High School. Kerrie Littlejohn (USA) translated.

Galapagos Penpal Program

2005 – 2007: Galapagos ICE coordinated an e-mail pen pal program between junior high, high school and college students in the Galapagos and students of similar ages in the United States. The participating U.S. schools and colleges were: Indian River Middle School, Philadelphia, NY; TE Middle School, PA; South Brandywine Middle School, Brandywine, PA; Meadowridge School, Canada; and Peace College, Raleigh, NC. In this program, students studied each other’s culture and exchanged emails about ordinary life circumstances in two very different parts of the world. Spanish students from Peace College helped translate the e-mails.

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