Science
Thursday science lessons with teacher
Milady Ruiz were a highlight of Jumpstart Naranjo.
Week 1, we had fun blowing bubbles, and
learned about the chemicals in common soaps like shampoo and detergent.
Week 2,
we studied animals, and drew our own crazy animals, like the rare frogsnake and
turtlemonkey.
Next we got the opportunity to design
our own experiments, thinking about what will make a pendulum go faster or
slower.
In the last week, we translated complex instructions, and worked in teams to build block towers.
Milady’s passion for science was
infectious. She gave us lots of time to conduct our own experiments, and then
helped us understand the scientific concepts behind what we were experiencing.
In just four lessons, we studied chemistry, biology, ecology, physics, geometry
and mathematics, all mixed with English!
Community Role Models
We worked hard at Jumpstart Finca Naranjo,
but sometimes the work could be challenging. We needed to seek out people who
believed in us, and wanted to help us reach our goals.
For this, two role models from the
community joined us at camp one Friday morning.
Our first guest was Xiani, who works as
a tour guide around the country, including at Marino Ballena (Marine Whale)
National Park, near Uvita. She is the mother of Alex, one of our Jumpstart
student teachers, and a great role model himself.
Xiani came in uniform: hiking pants, a
light shirt, hiking boots and sunglasses. She also brought a black backpack filled
with the tools of her trade: field guides, snorkels, binoculars, a phone with a
GPS, a map, water and a first aid kit.
Xiani presented in Spanglish (a mix of
English and Spanish.) Our students already knew words like frog, dolphin and
whale, because we learned animal vocabulary the day before in our special STEM
(science, technology engineering and math) session!
Xiani said she often spoke in
English, guiding both American tourists, and tourists from countries such as
Germany. Sometimes she said she didn’t know the word for something, so she
showed a picture of the animal. The tourist then taught her the word, and every
day she learned more and more.
Her advice for us: “Be positive, and
believe in yourself.”
Our second guest was Sindy, a licensed
physical therapist who manages a rehabilitation clinic, a gym and stationary
store in Naranjo. She told us she started studying physical therapy because she
was looking for a way to help her grandfather, who suffered from muscle pains
as he lay sick in bed.
“You have to do things because you feel
motivated to do them,” she said.
Sindy passed around her diploma and graduation
photos, getting our Jumpstart students thinking about their own graduations from
high school, and college.
With the help of our guests, Jumpstart
students, student teachers, and teachers brainstormed and shared their plans for
the future. In our Jumpstart group, we learned, are future doctors, nurses, teachers,
engineers, secretaries and tour guides.
What an inspiring group of people!
Peer Role Models, and Teacher Mentors
For our third high school ready session,
we invited a seventh grader, Tati, and English teacher, Heiner, to Jumpstart.
In small groups, our students took turns
chatting with Tati, Heiner, and the Jumpstart English teacher, Linsey. The
students asked the guests questions written out on notecards. Some were silly,
like, “would you rather have the super power of being able to fly, or be
invisible?” Others were more serious, and drawn from our first high school
ready session. In that session, students had anonymously submitted questions about high
school, like “will I pass my classes?” and “do older students pick on the
seventh graders?”
Even though Tati is tiny and only in
seventh grade (about to start eighth), she often speaks in front of the whole
school at actocivicos. She talked with her groups about being careful about how
they choose their friends. She said classmates will ask them if they want to go
to the palms to take drugs. Tati also told us about her sister, who started
harming herself after she got into a bad relationship. She told us to make sure
not to change for anybody.
After getting time to chat, groups
wrote down their promises for the coming year, and made a class poster:
Graduation
Talking in front of big groups isn’t
easy. It’s especially not easy when you’re speaking in a language that’s new to
you.
Because of this, it was incredibly
inspiring to see our Jumpstart students get up in front of a group of about 70
to speak in English.
All of our students wrote and memorized
dialogues that pulled together everything we’ve learned over the past four
weeks. We practiced in front of each other, and little by little refined our
presentation skills. We worked on projecting our voices, and using gestures to
capture the interest of audience members who don’t know any English. Jendry, our
special student speaker, decided to give her talk in English and Spanish.
Fer showed off
her monkeywhale, which she made during one of our special science classes:
After getting
diplomas, all the students pitched in to hand out food and drinks. German’s
mother cooked us arroz con pollo and caracoles. Coopeagropal, the local palm
company, donated juice, pastries and cake.
After four weeks of hard week, and fun,
the students waved goodbye, and said “see you Monday.” Starting high school can
be scary, but they are ready for it!
