So What is Earth Partnership Anyway?

Earth Partnership for Schools (EPS) was founded in 1991 with the goal to “enhance environmental literacy of school children through restoration of native habitats in schoolyards and nearby areas.” (1). Earth Partnership for Schools has trained teams from over seventeen states as well as Puerto Rico, Mexico, and now Nicaragua to bring the EPS curriculum to their schools. The EPS curriculum is based on ten “restoration education steps: study habitats and ecosystems, investigate school site history, analyze, connect, design, prepare the site, plant, manage, research, learn.” (2). EPS has designed various lessons, activities, and experiments for each step, which incorporate various district standards for math, science, literature, social studies, etc. The goal of EPS is to integrate natural spaces into the curriculum as much as possible and involve the students in every step of the process. Latino Earth Partnership was founded in the summer of 2013, with the goal to continue to bring environmental restoration to schools in Latin America. (1) Rick Hall & Cheryl Bauer-Armstrong, Earth Partnership for Schools: Ecological Restoration in Schools and Communities, Ecological Restoration Vol. 28, No. 2, 2010, pg. 208.      (2)Ibid. 209-210. 

To read more from this article follow this link:                                                                            Earth Partnership for Schools: Ecological Restoration in Schools and Communities

I am the first intern to be a part of the Latino Earth Partnership. The job description for my position was, and is still, being developed. As this is a pilot project we are constantly learning, changing, and improving what our program looks like. My current job description is one that I wrote for myself about half way through my internship and is a compilation of what I was currently doing in the school as well as what I thought should be added for the next intern:

Latino Earth Partnership Rough Draft of Intern’s Job Description

Kysa Stocking
2/17/14

Updated: 4/24/14

Number of Schools:  5

·      Sara Mora de Guerrero

·      Elsa Head

·      Dezandberg

·      Carlos A. Bravos

·      Naciones Unidas

In the Morning Work With: grades 1-3 ages 6-8

·      Tutoring, volunteering at the school

In the Afternoon Work With: grades 4-6 ages 9-12

·      Working in gardens with older kids

·      Working on various activities and experiments that incorporate the outdoors into the learning process

Number of Days at Each School: One day a week at each school for six weeks. I will work to combine LEP goals with the goals set out by the Nicaraguan government while creating my lesson plans

Themes the Government Has Laid Out to Promote in the Schools:

·      Health and Nutrition

·      Organics

·      Recycling

·      Beautification

·      Conservation of resources

·      Reduction of contaminants

·      Multiplication of species

·      Restoration

Initial Lesson Plan Ideas:

o   Nutrition

*  Vegetable testing

o   Recycling/Organics

*  Scavenger hunt for trash

*  Boxes in classroom labeled like ones outside

*  Set up compost bins

o   Beatification

*  Mural

*  Art

*  Paint

o   Restoration/conservation of resources

*  Planning the garden together

*  How can we use what is already there brainstorming

o   Reduction of contaminants

*  Experiment with dirt and water filters

o   Multiplication of species

*  Choosing plants and identifying seeds 

Schedule: 10 weeks total

o   Week # 1: Feb. 17-21: Institute

o   Week # 2: Feb. 24-28: Nandasmo

o   Week # 3: Mar. 3-7: Meetings with schools/directors

o   Week # 4: Mar. 10-14: Week #1

o   Week # 5: Mar.17-21: Week #2

o   Week # 6: Mar.24-28: Week #3

o   Week # 7: Mar. 31-Apr. 4: Week #4

o   Week # 8: Apr. 7-11: Week #5

o   Week # 9: Apr. 14-18: Semana Santa (No school)

o   Week # 10: Apr. 21-25: Week #6

My Role:

·      To support the teachers in promoting the above themes through educational activities.

·      Encourage the teachers and students to teach and learn in different ways.

·      Engage the kids and get them excited about the garden and the environment.

While this is still a working draft, it gives an idea of what I was trying to do in the schools. I ran into various obstacles, one of which was using the EPS materials in Nicaragua. For one, all the lessons are in English and thus only accessible to any teachers who speak English and two, the lessons are based on a western standard of education and access to resources. The biggest challenge of this internship, for me, was to learn how to adapt. In the process of planning out what I was going to teach the kids, my initial reaction was to follow the ten restoration steps laid out by EPS. I am working for Latino Earth Partnership, so I concluded that should hold constant with their methods of teaching and learning. As I started to look through the archives of lesson plans I realized very quickly that I would never have the access to computers, technology, and even paper and marker supplies that the schools in the U.S. had. After some thought I decided that, while strictly following the ten step plan might not work, I could base my lessons on many of the core concepts. Here is what I came up with:

·      Week 1: Inventory of habitat/ideal gardens

·      Week 2: Soil testing/make compost

·      Week 3: Mapping the schoolyard, where could we put the garden?

·      Week 4: Nutrition, why are we building a garden?

·      Week 5: Making seedbeds

·      Week 6: Conclusion/out reach to the community/next steps

You will find more detailed lesson plans and comments in the links marked as lesson plans.