The Power of Collaboration

An event watched round the world this week was the successful and joyful rescue of 33 Chilean miners who had been trapped underground for two months. Miners, engineers, politicians, and families all worked together to make this successful rescue possible. Collaboration is a powerful tool.

This week we had to cope with a short week and NECAP testing. Some of our classes were not affected and were able to complete activities such as the map quiz that other classes will be taking during the coming week. So let’s do a quick recap.

By now all of you should have your syllabus for Africa. It lists the activities we will be doing as we get to know this large and diverse continent. All classes were assigned the Africa political map, and as the syllabus states, a quiz will follow. You may use your map for the quiz, so if you have a complete and easy to read map you should earn a high score. You also have been assigned a current event on Africa. Many of you decided to bring in an event based on your project country. That was a great idea, as that article has now given you some background information for your project.

All of the classes have been broken into groups and your leader selected a country out of the hat. You have a rubric that clearly outlines what your project must include. We are focusing on the challenges, opportunities and successes of your country. By working together you should be able to divide the work to make the project more manageable.

You were required to have your MHS email account ready to use by October 1. When all members of your group have accounts, you can use Adobe Acrobat to build the slides as a joint venture. Collaboration is a key to success in many endeavors, and this project gives you an opportunity to practice that skill. In addition, you will be presenting and using note cards... an opportunity to practice skills you will need for Capstone.

Some classes were able to watch the MSNBC story on the ancient city of Timbuktu. Western Africa was a rich region and home to wealthy and powerful kingdoms. Cities traded in slaves, gold and salt. Today, these cities have fallen into disrepair but there is a new interest in preserving the culture, especially the thousands of documents that were part of the Timbuktu library.

Some classes also met William Kamkwamba, “the boy who harnessed the wind.” William tells his own story as the young son of a poor farmer. His family was hard hit by a drought, and because of the lack of money he was forced to drop out of school. But he would not be defeated. By reading a book on electricity from his local library (which had just two shelves of books), he was able to put together a wind mill out of scrap pieces of PVC pipe and old bicycle parts. He soon was generating enough electricity for his home, the farm, and recharging people’s cell phones. William plans to use the proceeds from an award he received to conduct workshops in his home village in Malawi to teach other young people the useful skills he has learned. His is an inspiring story.

Right here in our own back yard

While reading The Newport Daily News I came across two articles of particular interest. First, Richard Saul Wurman was featured on the front page of Friday’s paper. He recently spoke at the Redwood Library, where he offered a partial apology for a remark he had previously made to a New York Times reporter describing Newport as “an intellectual wasteland.” But what particularly interested me were Wurman’s references to TED, an organization he founded that sponsors an annual conference on technology, education and design (hence the initials). One of its guiding principles is that bringing together creative minds from a variety of fields can lead to exciting new innovations. TED is one of my favorite web sites, offering brief but fascinating video clips of dynamic, thought-provoking speakers.

The second article was a brief story about Solar Sisters, an organization based on women selling to women products using solar power that will make their lives easier. This organization has been very successful in Africa. Check it out.

Spirit Week

Even though our football team was a bit short on the score board, we can all be very proud of the efforts they made on the field and as you know there is another big game coming up next weekend. We are going to have a grand time celebrating Spirit Week at school. So join in the fun!

Happy Birthday to BABM!