Project Day!

As they say in Hebrew, Sof Sof. Finally, the day I’ve been waiting for.
Our Earth Day event started at 1pm. To get ready, we met at the school at 10:30. Kristine and I set up our table, I straightened my poster and put of some flip charts to write the answers the students gave down. We couldn’t find the school director but that we had the school key so it was ok.

After our table was set up with the glue, scissors, markers we spread out our model college. We then took the refridgartor box (sweet find) and cut it up for each of our 3 sessions. Finally, we were ready to go. We had a much needed coffee break and headed back.

The kids kept milling on in. While there were a few in the morning by 12:20 there was a mass. That is what happens when there is literally nothing to do in your town. We considered starting early, but the school director had yet to arrive so we held off.

Kacey introduces the project as she is managing it. Unfortunately, the composting station turned out to be a no go. In the end the stations ended up being a glass bottle candle making station, a trivia show and the River pollution. In plan, the kids were supposed to have 40 minutes at each startion and then voluntarily switch. However, as kids are kids, there is very little incentive for them to voluntarily change if there is no consequence for not changing.

Kristine and my station went really well. We had her English speaking cousins translate. To start, I elicited answers to questions about river pollution, such as what the pollution? Where does the garbage do they die go? For the garbage that remains on the side, where does the die go? How long does the plastic stay in the river? Kids answered on scraps. I then taped the answers on the flip charts and read them aloud. Next we spoke about the consequences of littering in the river (killing animals, polluting seas, and contaminating drinking sources). To wrap up, we spoke about other places to put garbage instead of the river.

After the teacher directly learning ended, we headed over to the collage area. I instructed kids to take a piece of garbage, ask Kristine or I for glue, and then to step on it for 1 minute. This went very well, except that the some kids forgot to ask for glue so their garbage didn’t quite stick. During the stepping and gluing I did a summative assessment with the help of Ornela, our language teacher. I asked the kids what happens to the garbage they throw in the river, and why they shouldn’t throw it there. Not that Kristine and I are so fabulous (well, we are), but I was really impressed with how much they seemed to retain.
We then changed stations. I noticed a few kids stayed at our station all 3 times, making them experts at river pollution. I think they really enjoyed the gluing and stepping.

Regrettably because of the way we structured the day, I was unable to visit anyone else’s station while it was going on. However, I think the kids really enjoyed it.
Thankfully, Rina was able to get permission to come and photographed part of the event. She got a little bored, as most of the participants were younger, and wandered off with my camera to do a photo shoot with the other teenage girls.
I finally found here and was able to snap a few shots at the last session.
After the sessions, the kids were gathered again for a thank you. We posed next to the various signs, helped our many generous translators and then cleaned up. A bunch of kids were loitering so I asked if anyone wanted to help clean. They all wanted to and clean up went exceptionally fast.

It’s kind of amazing that it took us 30 days to organize a 2 ½ hour project. But if ½ of the participants learned anything it was well worth the effort.