A Glimpse of the Education Work

Hello from Angela (now happily in Mahadaga, healthy and glad to be with the rest of the team)

Take a look at the two pictures below if you'd like to understand the crux of what the Education group is working on during this trip. The first one shows the work of a boy, about 8 years old, who used Cuisenaire rods to fill in a puzzle that looks like a giraffe. Cuisenaire rods are a teaching tool; wooden rectangular blocks of different colors; each color is a different length from 1 to 10 units. Children learn grouping with these rods. The picture illustrates that this child, named Eleazar, knows how to use grouping to complete his task efficiently. Notice that he tried to use the longest rods possible to fill in the spaces.

The second picture below shows the work of another student on the same task. Mireille is her name, and she did not really complete the giraffe, because she was intent on using the white, unit-length rods. She is not as comfortable with grouping, and despite my suggestion that she could make more progress if she used a yellow rod, for example, in place of 5 white ones, she continued using the unit rods. It is difficult to create a giraffe this way, because the small white rods jostle around more than the others when someone bumps the table! Eventually Mireille gave up on the task and just began to play randomly with the rods.

Many children in African schools have a rote understanding of the concepts they learn (they can recite '5+3=8' for example), but they are lacking the conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas that is necessary to use concepts like grouping to solve problems efficiently and progress to harder courses. This learning weakness prevents some adolescents from successfully completing an apprenticeship for their chosen trade. Mireille is learning sewing and wants to become a tailor. To do this, she will need to be able to group measurements and materials in many different ways. She knows a lot about sewing, as she was proudly explaining to me during a recreation break, but she is in our program because she's having difficulty passing her entrance exam into middle school.

In the Burkina Summer Enrichment Program, Bethany, Katie and I are working with a group of about 15 children for four hours a day, 6 days a week, in the library at the CAH. Our goal is to build abstract thinking skills through literacy, geography, arithmetic, geometry, and measurement activities. We came with about 50 activities prepared, and now we're modifying them as necessary to match the abilities of the children. The toughest part is working with 6 children who are blind or almost blind. Fortunately, all of the children are (fairly) well-behaved and really want to be there.

Our other team projects are moving along. John, Jon, Charlie, Justin, and Alex worked hard today at the CAH shop. They completed Yempabou's tricycle, continued building a prototype of the new frame design, and helped Matt install a new water pump at the Center. Unfortunately the new pump hasn't solved the problem there, so the Center still has no water. The team has running water, though, back at the guesthouse compound. Mike spent the afternoon purifying a sample local cooking oil for biodiesel processing. Randy Fish flew to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia this morning and should soon be in Zambia for a week.

Everyone is doing well. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. With one week to go for most of the team, time is getting short for much of our work. It is flying by quickly, with lots of joy and good relationships, and we pray that we can finish our time here well.

A demain,
Angela