Workshop Session # 1

Pro vivienda TOM

Room # 201

Global Issue:

Poverty

“Colegio Bolivar”

 

Essential Question

How can we help to improve TOM’s quality of life?

Impact Statement

By June 2019 we will have collected 3 million Colombian pesos to contribute to the donation of the initial fee of a home for a transport, operations or maintenance worker of our school. Our goal was achieved through fundraising with the food fair and the art gallery. Activities in which the whole community of our school participated: students, teachers, graduates and parents of family. Our two strategies have been 1) Inspire the community to take the pro housing project as an opportunity to show appreciation and gratitude to the workers who are valuable members of our community. 2) Recognize that the donated house improves the living conditions of a whole family group.

Film Festival:

Presentation:

Project Description

In this year’s GIN class, ninth grade, we helped an existing project called Proyecto Provivienda. In this project, after fundraising 15 million of Colombian Pesos, a raffle is made to see which worker of the TOM (school workers) would receive the money as an initial fee for a house of his own. The project we are making to help Provivienda with is an art gallery. This gallery has the goal of gathering 3 million Colombian Pesos for Provivienda; by selling the art the Colegio Bolivar community donates to help with the project.

This project is sustainable because we add our effort to a school program that has 10 years existing. In this case, our activities just complemented the regular activities of the program. All school is involved: administrators, teachers, workers, parents. Our project was the opportunity to be leaders in fundraising for TOM workers. The art gallery activity, the idea is that, in the future, this same project can be remade by other GIN students if they decide to.

In this presentation you can learn about different indicators of poverty and different ways of understanding this global problem. You will learn about an institutional project that has worked for 10 years and that has 9 beneficiaries. Our proposal exemplifies ¿How a GIN project can be articulated to existing school programs? Achieving to encourage and expand the level of participation and involvement of students in leadership and the achievement of the proposed goals. Finally you will learn about some ideas that failed (fashion show) and others that were successful (art gallery) for the collection of money. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XSfcSZj1OXDr1bXC_hg6wJU_CAna0Tcw38VpoqWsMLM/edit?usp=sharing

TEACH:Teaching English with EAC workers

Room # 202

Global Issue:

Education For All

“Campinas”

 

Essential Question

By helping to teach the EAC staff some English language, how does that help build community?

Impact Statement

We have successfully made interactive lessons and attracted 5 school workers to our afterschool program. We are building community by interacting more closely and effectively as we are students and they are workers. They appreciate the time and attention we have shown and as a result, we are encouraged to continue the tEACh program.

Film Festival:

Presentation:

Project Description

Our goal is to build community within our school so that everyone respects each other and feel welcomed. We noticed that when we came to Upper School, students were not greeting a the workers. There is a class barrier, but also a language barrier. We decided to teach the workers English so that they could communicate better with all students and teachers. We interviewed a few of the workers about what they would like and many said that they would be interested in learning English.We picked up a few resources online and a few physical resources like beginner level English books which we got from our school library and with the help of the first-grade teachers. Some of the materials we are using include elementary school’s unused books, games, Kahoot and other similar websites.

We want to continue our afterschool lessons and hope that it grows. We will be asking the administration to also let workers have some time to attend our lessons. Our project could grow into a ‘Community Service Project’ for next school year. We also plan to put up a bulletin board that features the workers so that our community knows their names and some facts about them that we learned from our interviews.

We explain our vision to have a more friendly school and show our lessons with the 5 workers from our school. We will introduce a game in Portuguese to show how difficult it is not to understand, but be expected to follow directions. Then we will play a short game with the audience. We finish with a discussion on how to bring the community together. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1j08CFfNajokZhEC0doN4UUUcz_wypzWXaM3WNhmJADs/edit?usp=sharing

WaGin

Room # 203

Global Issue:

Water Deficits

“Columbus”

 

Essential Question

How can we, as a school, provide more sustainable solutions for La Guajira’s community?

Impact Statement

We have directly served 3 Wayuu communities (Cascajalito, el Milagro, Ipotshîyu), impacted The Columbus School community and the ecosystems in la Guajira by March 2019 using sustainable water solutions, short term resources, and strong educational campaigns to raise awareness amongst the travelers. The carbon footprint of the trip has been greatly decreased through the strategies mentioned above, and we plan to keep doing this in the future.

Film Festival:

Presentation:

Project Description

WaGIN (we know… like the conference) , is a project composed of Columbus School students, teachers and other members of the community that focuses on maximizing the impact the 8th grade humanitarian trip to la Guajira. This year, we have encountered many enigmas as to the next steps that we will take. In the past few years we’ve worked hard on reducing the carbon footprint of the trip. After all, what good is it if we go to our local communities and destroy their ecosystems?. With a stong focus on systems thinking, WaGIN is growing and evolving into a more sustainable and efficient project. We’ve also had a major focus on an educational campaign for the whole educational community. The real problem is it is people’s mindsets. If we tackle this attitude problem, we will have a much greater impact. For this campaign, we have done walks, presentations and other events that will ultimately allow us to reach a broader audience with a stronger message.

The WaGIN project is working on its sustainability practices by implementing several methods. First of all, we are trying to guarantee that the campaign encompases every grade, from k4 to 12th grade. Involving the community this way also takes shape in educating it, for example our team went to elementary school classrooms to present the Guajira project, which assures that our project has transgenerational sustainability, meaning that our project will leave on even after our student classes graduate. By educating children, the project also reaches their parents. Those who are more involved with the project have also formed committees that aim to understand problems and help develop solutions that will remain for several student generations. In future, we plan to help find solutions for the current problems in La Guajira and to evaluate the trip’s carbon footprint in order to … . We also plan to have eighth graders spread the information on the project through massive communication methods such as social media and our school’s website. In Global Usage subject, compensate for the carbon footprint after the trip by planting trees and buying a carbon credit. Make the 8th graders spread the information to massive communication methods

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kPeTeMo_ugW6jygsoSIyR3fpdqSfhC4CuBK1DJGTqao/edit?usp=sharing

OLMobile

Room # 204

Global Issue:

Education for All

“OLM”

 

Essential Question

Are we aware of the positive and negative outcomes that present themselves through mobile devices in modern day society?

Impact Statement

We are serving our school community and accomplishing our goal of raising awareness based on the positive and negative outcomes of cellphone use. We observed the technological devices’ misuse, health-related issues, misinformation, and environmental impact. By April, we will have had the opportunity to inform and engage children, students, and parents on the importance of the facts concerning the use of smartphones. By creating a logo, song, Instagram account, and video, we have taken the right steps to help us spread our concerns about the use of cellular devices.

Film Festival:

Presentation:

Project Description

Students first identified the importance of mobile devices in our society nowadays through observations. Students discovered the effects these devices can have on everyday people by deciding to research and collect positive and negative information of cellphones. The project’s goal is to raise community awareness about cellphone use in modern society, with the big question being whether or not the community is aware of the pros and cons of mobile devices. The team has successfully presented the project to the students and parents of Our Lady of Mercy School by conducting interactions and activities that taught them how to properly use their mobile devices, while also helping viewers recognize the problems that mobile devices can cause. Their main challenge is to help people realize that THEY are the owner of their mobile- not the opposite. People control their smartphones; smartphones do NOT control people. A challenge is to communicate to cellphone users that addiction is becoming a problem in today’s society.

We had the opportunity to interact with people of all different ages ranging from elementary school students to adults about cell phone use during today’s society. We expect that the audience will act as role models in their environment and community by spreading the information gained through our project. We also see this conference as a unique chance to talk to the current generation and motivate them to care for not only their personal wellness, but the wellness of others. Some of the challenges the group faced was the lack of cell phone use given to us during school hours. There is a school-wide policy that does not allow the use of mobile phones, essentially making it difficult for us to complete this project. Moreover, as presented through this project, cell phones can help in many different situations. In this specific case, cell phones would have benefited the effectiveness of the completion of our project through communication, taking and scanning photos, and recording videos.

The audience will: 1- understand the evolution of the cell phone in terms of technological advances through the years. 2- understand the consequences regarding the blue light present in the smartphones, essentially affecting users mentally and physically. 3- learn about the potential harms caused by lack of attention due to smartphone used while driving. An activity will be done with the audience to demonstrate how people lose their focus while driving and using a smartphone simultaneously. 4- comprehend diverse health issues that are arising due to the cellphone. The audience will be able to experience the real use and potential damage that their cell phones perform regarding the weight on their necks. 5- learn about the social and mental effects smartphones have on their users, in both negative and positive ways. 6- learn about the components of a modern smartphone and its recycle rates through an interactive activity. 7- understand the importance of rare earth metals for technological devices and the dangers their extraction has on people. 8- learn some etiquette rules to avoid being rude and annoying others when using their smartphones. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1djvigHx1NUejLprv4ybrK6T6Fyfn2fIRsKQr4RZMK1E/edit?usp=sharing

Style for Change

Room # 205

Global Issue:

climate change, water deficits, pollution, and, poverty.

“Sampederana”

 

Essential Question

Other than donating it, what do you do with the clothes you don’t use anymore?

Impact Statement

We have successfully served 5 public school classes, 10 kids of the Hospital Mario Catarino Rivas, and a girls home by January 25, 2019 reusing clothes and plastic bags we no longer needed by using frames that we created, by tangling the clothes together and creating the various different mats, blankets, pillows etc, so our goals could be accomplish and we have made our part in helping our community.

Film Festival:

Presentation:

Project Description

Style for change has different purposes to target different issues. We will create a replacement of plastic bags with bags made of used plastic bags. We will make blankets and carpets with used clothes to donate to public schools, orphanages, etc. Style for change has different goals we want to achieve; reduce the use of supermarket’s plastic bags and provide comfort and support for orphanages, public schools, etc. We want to achieve this goals to change people’s habits in our community, and help poor people overcome themselves. Since we started working on this project we have had success on creating the blankets, bags, carpets and pillows. We have been able to finish them and donate them. But throughout all of this process we have faced some challenges that have made this project difficult but not impossible. We have had the struggle of obtaining clothes no longer needed, since our community in EIS hasn’t supported us. Also, we have had the struggle of managing time to create more blankets, pillows, carpets and bags since they all take a lot of time and effort.

Style for Change will be an organization that will make factories socially responsible for the overproduction of non-biodegradable materials. We will make it expand by alluring other companies to be part of the social impact. Style for Change wants to empower women by acquiring people who have an interest in educating women to provide for their families and have no dependency on a male counterpart.

Our project is about the creation of a blanket for the new born babies in the Catarino Public Hospital in Honduras, Public schools in need of sitting material, pillows, and other variety of creations with clothing. We created this blankets and the other stuff, with used clothes cut into strips, and then positioned in a framed made of wood with nails with a margin of about 5 inch.Our goals are to make a big amount of blankets by partnering up with charities, people in our school, companies and anyone that is willing to help, and then share our blankets with the babies in the hospital and the kids in the public schools. We found a lot about how clothes affects our environment, and that we should make people aware of the effect this has on our environment. We spread awareness in our school by giving talk to middle schoolers and primary students, so they get informed about the situation, and as they grow old try to change the new generation’s minds.

HACIENDO MAGIA: Entrepeneurship Vs Poverty

Room # 106

Global Issue:

The Fight Against Poverty

“Santo Domingo”

 

Essential Question

How can we fight the Handout Mentality?

Impact Statement

We have successfully served 12 underprivileged young women of a mariginal community by April 2019 by teaching them handicrafts, which we later branded and sold. We have also held basic financial mathematics workshops aiming to help them distinguish wants from needs and help them to identify theirs in order to learn how to manage their money, thus hoping to accomplish our goal of empowering them to be financially independent and refuse handouts.

Film Festival:

Presentation:

Project Description

Our goal is to fight poverty by empowering underprivileged women to create and manage their own resources instead of expecting handouts from the government or men. We have taught them to make handicrafts which we have successfully branded and sold. We’ve used the profits from the first batch to buy their school supplies and taught them the importance of identifying needs and wants and prioritizing the first. We’ve also discussed the importance of being financially independent, but it has been surprisingly challenging since it’s basically fighting against a deep-rooted ideology. Another challenge we’ve faced has been selling the rugs (first batch of crafts) since many people liked them but due to the odd size weren’t sure of their purpose. We need to expand our contact to their families and eventually their entire neighborhood in order to help them understand what we are doing and gain allies within the community.

We will expand our workshops to include family members and community leaders so the project can go on without us. Also, we will “pass the torch” of our GIN project to the upcoming sophomore class. (see “Project Description fro goals, successes, challenges and needs)

Project Description: We will expand our workshops to include family members and community leaders so the project can go on without us. Also, we will “pass the torch” of our GIN project to the upcoming sophomore class. LEARNING GOALS: 1) 1) Examine the vicious cycle of poverty and how it affects all of us 2) Analyze ways to empower young women to create and manage their own sources of income 3) Make handicrafts using discarded scraps of fabric and minimal investement 4) Explore several marketing strategies. https://1drv.ms/p/s!AmDrFK3naIuqliXT9CAD7ayYEmZK

Skip the Straw

Room # 104

Global Issue:

Plastic pollution

“Tegucigalpa”

 

Essential Question

How can we contribute to minimizing plastic waste from straws and single use plastic in our environment?

Impact Statement

We have successfully served 400 middle school and highschool students by organizing an awareness campaign, as well meeting with dining hall authorities and other stakeholders to effectively substitute plastic straws with biodegradable straws in our school community.

Film Festival:

Presentation:

Project Description

Of all the plastic products we use and take for granted, plastic drinking straws are among the most unnecessary. Designed to be used once and discarded, their only real purpose is to keep your mouth from touching a glass or ice. Its devastating results, unfortunately, are exponentially increasing, causing enormous damage to our environment, especially marine life; today we are focusing on sea turtles and how they are a necessity to human life. Avoiding plastic straws won’t save the oceans or the world on its own, however, when people start thinking about their habits and making small changes, they can bring about shifts in that lead to wider societal changes. Substituting plastic straws for biodegradable ones is a big step to reducing the amount of plastic we produce and waste, and creates awareness on our role as global citizens to protect our environment . We started out as a small group with big visions, and we are now a team that has accomplished great achievements. We reached the goal of changing people’s mindset into realizing what their plastic waste is doing to the marine life.

We started as a small group with a big vision and now our vision is growing as we move on. We are planning on expanding the impact of our campaign by collaborating with other community stakeholders that promote and support the initiative of eliminating single-use plastic, and work together to become a stronger force that will lead to wider societal changes

*Stop using plastic straws and other single-use plastics at AST One of our strategies was to plan a meeting with our local cafeteria manager. After the exposition of our team’s mission and goal, she agreed to substitute plastic straws for avocado pit straws, which are biodegradable. Shortly after, plates, knives and forks were also changed and we are now planning for a substitution of spoons as well. Later on, the cafeteria started selling edible straws with flavors, which is also in accordance to our objective of eliminating single-use plastic in our school. We also made a noticeable amount of posters promoting our campaign; this led to motivate AST students to stop using plastic straws in and out of school. We made sure that the posters were colorful and attractive, therefore, awareness on this matter was easily attained. *Spread the word through your network of relationships using the hashtag #Skip the Straw. We will start a #Skip the Straw chain that will promote the idea of eliminating plastic straws and single-use plastic in the AST community. An instagram account, which will be used to share pictures, news, campaigns, etc., using hashtag #Skip the Straw, will be opened for this purpose *Propose a Skip the Straw pledge for the AST community. We will propose a anti- plastic straw pledge for the AST community. This promise will remind us of the harm that the plastic produces in the oceans and the role we have as global citizens to protect our environment. Hopefully this pledge will serve as a mindset breaker and habit changer in regards to our dependance on single-use plastic, and get us closer to becoming a plastic free school. *Approach AST collaborators to make a persuasive case for them to Skip the Straw Our school collaborates with many different businesses that use plastic straws and other single-use plastic. We will request, based on our campaign mission, that these companies abide by our Skip the Straw policy whenever they sell products at AST’s events and activities. Slideshow: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1U3zBHqw_Qzjx-W0XBiacUpaCnJxe2cTyczGqoPhN5cI/edit#slide=id.p

Caminando Ando

Room # 103

Global Issue:

Poverty, Pollution

“Colegio Roosevelt”

 

Essential Question

NA

Impact Statement

NA

Film Festival:

Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1z98317SgHmHu4t9Rw_zPfzrRhtp1hGXx9zCblpfgCtQ/edit?usp=sharing

Project Description

Non profit teenage group that wants to make the world a better place.

NA

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1z98317SgHmHu4t9Rw_zPfzrRhtp1hGXx9zCblpfgCtQ/edit?usp=sharing