Sunday, June 24, 2012

Rockets, Magnets & Gooey Gak


Ready to explore the world!

I had the amazing privilege this week to help teach a Science Camp to about 45 Guatemala children, ages 5 - 16. (in Spanish) The education system in Guatemala struggles to effectively teach the basics of reading, writing and mathematics. So when it comes to history and science, they do not have the necessary resources to teach much more than the simplest of scientific concepts and minimal history. We often find that we have read more on the history of Guatemala than the average Guatemalan. 

Kids, Teachers and NMC Team
Every week we host an After-School tutoring program at a local school. While talking with Principal Nancy about different ways we can help advance her work with the kids in her school, she mentioned that they don’t have the experience, resources or materials for science experiments. They read science facts from a text, but they have no hands on experiences.  Can you imagine trying to understand the concept of magnetism without using magnets or chemical reactions without actually mixing baking soda and vinegar?

Learning about plants....

and magnets ....
When I found out we had a crew of teachers coming from North Metro Church, I asked if they would be interested in planning a mini-science camp. I was a little hesitant, knowing it might be more than I could pull off. This group of teachers were AMAZING. They came up with the activities, the group management plans, 90% of the materials and they even had the lesson plans translated into Spanish. What a joy to have this team serve our ministry and the kids of Guatemala!

Lava lamps were a big hit!
The kids had the opportunity to examine, observe, explore, touch, smell, hear, taste and feel plants, magnets, sound vibrations, chemical reactions and food mixtures. They especially enjoyed the chemistry day as we made a gooey mixture called “Gak.” We also made rockets from plastic film canisters with water and Alka-seltzer. On the food science day, they loved making trail mix, fruit punch, and peanut butter balls.

3 - 2 - 1   BLASTOFF!!

The kids and teachers were so grateful for all that they learned this week. The Lord sees these kids and Nancy’s desire to provide a well-rounded education for them. He provided for a great need in their school. We just happened to be available for him to use. It was our honor to serve alongside this NMC team as we planted seeds and grew young minds. Gracias a Dios!

Sweet little treasures!


2 comments:

  1. So proud of you for so many reasons but I think one of the coolest parts of this blog is "(in Spanish)". Can't believe you did that. How do you even know science words in Spanish? So impressed. You've set the bar so high!!!

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  2. Love reading about the camp from your perspective. :) You nailed the Spanish. So impressed!

    Thank you for giving us this opportunity. It was such a blessing to love on the kids, and a pleasure to see them experiencing science in such a hands on way.

    Can I come back next year for round 2?

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