Notes from the station
2023 is flying by and, while there are too many positive things going on to report them all, seeing new life in our community program puts a smile on my face every day. Having struggled to fill our community internships post-Covid, we currently have two marvelous interns - Antonia and Mariola. With their amazing efforts, Environmental Education is in full swing at the elementary school. With all grades being taught, our interns not only plant the seeds of environmental appreciation, but also help the teachers to move towards achieving the environmental award "Bandera Azul". While participation in this award is compulsory, the school has to meet many sustainability goals to achieve it. They have to look at the waste generated as well as ways to reduce it and promote a more sustainable way of life to the students.
Students at all grade levels need to receive environmental education and participate in school improvements, and we're happy to be able to help the teachers along. Another important aspect of our community program has been educational support, primarily in promoting literacy, numeracy and science through different activities. As local highschool students have not been receiving in-class lessons since 2019 because of infrastructure issues, Conservation Club has shifted focus to fill these students' unstructured time with a little extra science. Because they desperately need to be at school with their teachers, we're also helping with fundraising events to facilitate classroom repairs until reconstruction can take place.
To work towards promotion of literacy, this year we've shifted our mini-library to the gates of the school to ensure that all of the students have access to these resources. We lend books every Friday and this project was boosted immensely by the donation of around 70 new Spanish language story books by Mariola's mum. As a school teacher in Spain, she had access to books that the school no longer needed as they went digital, and she delivered them to our door - a truly dedicated teacher! While we have several hundred books in English, this donation DOUBLED the number of Spanish books we have. With great support from the teachers, the books are being devoured - with us lending 49 last week alone.
Books at home are rare and can't be found for sale in the neighbouring towns - we comb second-hand book stores in San Jose when we get the chance so it's really energizing to see the enthusiasm students have for reading. Some of them are borrowing books as they come into school, reading them in recess and changing for a new book as they leave.
Mariola and Antonia aren't the only ones helping at the school, with all staff and interns rotating through in recent weeks to help fulfill a promise from last year's recycling program. We sold all of the plastics and cans the students brought in, and while plastic has virtually no resale value (9c per kg), each grade won a percentage of the money made from the cans sold (90c per kg). First grade were the overall winners and with $150 to spend they voted to buy games and puzzles for recess, and redecorate their classroom. With supplies purchased, we took advantage of the Easter break to repaint the classroom, fill their shelves with games and puzzles, and ensure that students returned to find the rewards of their hard work.
This year we will run the program a little differently, letting the student government make the decisions on how they want to spend the money they make from can recycling, and we're hoping that will drive them to promote participation across the grades. None of this work would be possible without an amazing team of interns and we're really grateful to them all for their incredible work!
