CREE Archives - Page 10 of 12 - Shoulder to Shoulder, Inc.

April 20, 2019August 4, 2023

Robotics Inspires Learning

By Richard Buten, PhD – President, Board of Directors

2018 Honduran Robotics Team Arriving in Mexico

Dear Supporters of Shoulder to Shoulder’s Educational Initiative:By way of introduction, I have been involved with Shoulder to Shoulder since 2001. In 2018, I became president of Board of Directors. I also sponsor the overall education program including our efforts in robotics.

In early 2017, Shoulder to Shoulder was contacted by FIRST to help them create a Honduran National Team for their new international robotics event. We were concerned that given the lack of overall technology exposure of the children from southern Intibucá, we would not be able to field a credible team. We tried unsuccessfully to partner with a private school in the capitol city, but they had no interest. So, we went ahead and got lucky in obtaining an experienced coach mentor, Alan Ostrow (a High School physics teacher from Philadelphia). With his help, the local math teacher coached our team to a 40^th place finish in a field of 160+ teams.

In the 2018 global robotics competition, we did even better, placing 16^th. See https://first.global/.

In parallel with the First Global effort, we began putting robotics into our bilingual school. Last year, we expanded Lego Robotics to three area high schools and held a “coopertition” among seven municipalities. We are expanding the robotics program to other schools in our service area where we can find local coaches willing to run the teams.

The robotics program falls within our emphasis on STEM. Also in this program is our project to deliver Khan Academy math and science first to our bilingual school and then to 23 additional schools in our service area. We are using technology from https://learningequality.org/kolibri that delivers Khan, CK-12, and other curriculum locally without internet. We are working to expand this program substantially this year and have recently obtained the Honduran textbooks in digital form.

In addition to our main web site, we also maintain another dedicated to the education efforts: http://hondurasrobot.org/. This contains more detail on robotics and other education technology efforts.

In closing, I want to thank you for your long-term significant support of education.

Very sincerely yours,

Dick Buten

Children using technology at elementary school

January 21, 2019August 4, 2023

When Children Are Engaged, Children Prosper

By Mariela Rodriguez – Assistant Director

Teachers from many kindergartens gather together

We called it the “Kindergarten project.” In early 2018, as a new school year was beginning in Honduras, a parent approached to say that their child’s kindergarten teacher was interested in being part of our computer-assisted learning initiative. At the time, our education programs focused on grades 1-9. Nonetheless, we decided to meet with the teachers. At the end of the meeting, our team offered to help fund, along with their parent association, half a television set to project English learning programs to an entire classroom of children. Our vision was for the kindergarten to pay us back and offer half-funding to another school in the future.

In September, we visited and checked-in on the project and were amazed at how the kids interacted with the program through the television screen — singing songs in both English and Spanish and learning to pronounce the sound of the English letters (see video).

In exchange for the assistance they received from Shoulder to Shoulder, we asked them to host a meeting with kindergarten teachers from other local towns to share their advances in the project. In mid-November when the meeting took place, teachers from 5 different kindergartens – representing 4 towns were present. The meeting was a success, and a number of teachers expressed interest in joining next school year!

We as an organization are very thankful and impressed with the success of our Kindergarten project and seeing the enthusiasm and gratefulness amongst the parents and the teachers causes us to also be excited to expand next year.

We saw that empowering community members was fruitful for both parties.

We’ve seen that finding community motivation, support and initiative is like hitting the jackpot.

Watch video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-dlFUJ7CS3TOxPU_EEEZtg7coMrvrg4Z/view

October 29, 2018August 4, 2023

Teachers from 23 Schools Gather for Technology Training

By Grace Twohig – Education Mission Assistant

80 Teachers, from 23 schools, attend Training

On August 30th, we held a training session on Educational Technology. In attendance were 80 teachers, from 23 schools, in 7 towns. Nine (9) of the schools were new to using the KA Lite technology. We trained on the transition from KA Lite to Kolibri. Eight (8) schools were sent off with new equipment to start teaching in “presentation mode.”For myself, it was a special meeting to have all of the teachers we have been working with over the last year and a half together in one room. I believe we work with the absolute best from each school. These teachers inspire us at Shoulder to Shoulder, and without their dedication to the kids’ education, this project would not be successful.

In September, we were lucky to have Dr. Dick Buten and Laura Manship come to Camasca for a week and a half. These two are treasured not only by us, but everyone in the Frontera. All year we hear “When is Dick coming?” “When is Laura coming?” We had another successful and productive week by their sides – visiting schools, talking with teachers and leaders, planning for the future, and deploying some extra equipment. Highlights from the trip include:

** Talking with leaders in Concepcion and San Antonio about community proposals to expand the educational projects to their WHOLE municipalities;

** Working with the Regional Education Department to get all of the Honduran curriculum in digital form, and

** Encouraging the expansion of the robotics programs. In November, we are going to have a robotics competition between Concepcion, Camasca and Santa Lucia!

StS Volunteers — Sandy (left); Grace (right)