Making An Exceptional Impact

STAR teachers 2019

By Minsis Ramos – Coordinator of Educational Advancement

Oneyda and Efrain (3rd and 5th from the left)

Oneyda and Efrain (3rd and 5th from the left)

What drives people to do things with dedication and passion? This is a question that has millions of answers because in this world everyone works towards individual goals; however, some goals bring people together in order to accomplish them. This is what happens in the Southern of Intibucá, Honduras. We are all working hard and with a dedication to accomplish one goal: to provide a STEM education in all the frontier!! We are working shoulder to shoulder to make it possible!!While we work hard to get to meet our goals, it is important to recognize the effort and leadership role that people take in the process. This is what Shoulder to Shoulder and Learning Equality did this past week when six of our teachers were awarded for their outstanding leadership with CREE’s Kolibri project.

Elementary Teachers

Efrain and Oneyda are teachers at the elementary level. Coming from a very rural area, neither one of them had prior knowledge of how to use technology to teach their classes. Nevertheless, they have shown that everything is possible when people are motivated. The teachers worked many extra hours to map the Khan Academy lessons onto the official Honduran Curriculum. By the end of 2019, this school has become one of our models, not only for how they have been using the equipment but also their methodology to teach their little learners.

High School Teachers

A number of High School teachers have demonstrated their enthusiasm by unselfishly teaching other teachers the best strategies to deliver quality education to their students. Also, one of these leaders (Josias) had the initiative to enroll his students in the Physics Olympics. Three of his students made it to the national competition! In addition, Josias used Kolibri to prepare himself to take the national test to be the lab director at the High School. Guess what? He passed the exam!!

These amazing testimonies motivate us to keep working hard. Each one of these teachers is making an outstanding and exceptional impact in the frontier community!

Meeting with Teacher Champions

Meeting with Teacher Champions

Josias, Physics Teacher

Josias, Physics Teacher

“Laura the Robot” Shined in Dubai

By Alan Ostrow – Mentor to Team Honduras

“Laura” Team Honduras’ Robot

The 3rd Annual FirstGlobal International Robotics Competition just concluded its Dubai competition. I am pleased to share the following:

  • Team Honduras’ final rank was 15th out of 190 teams in the world.
  • We were the #1 team in all of the Americas  (from Alaska to Argentina).
  • We won a Silver Medal for the Non-Technical Judges Award. There was no explanation given, but experience tells me that the Judges found Honduras to be a role model team.
  • We made it to the Semi-finals which means we were one of only 4 alliances left in the world to make it that far.
  • Our final record was 7 wins and 2 losses.

Alan’s Interview in Dubai

Team Honduras has competed in this International FirstGlobal Robotics competition for 3 years.  Overall, the Team has a record of 16 wins and 7 losses — which I am sure, places them in an elite class of teams.

There is certainly a lot to be proud of.  One of the things that impressed me most was that they discovered problems with the machine, when they were in Dubai, which could have knocked them out of contention.  But instead of giving up, they worked their way through the problems and built a champion.
They showed a lot of composure and character in the heat of competition.
It was a pleasure to work with Team Honduras.
Thanks
Al

William in Traditional Honduran Clothing

William in Traditional Honduran Clothing