This was the last full day in DC and I am now packed and ready to fly out tomorrow morning headed to San Francisco. Today was a productive day and has made this trip so far. I had the follow up meting today with NCSE, The National Council for Science and the Environment. I have noticed that when I am really excited about a project and the wheels in my brain start churning , I begin to speak very fast -well today was that kind of day. EnvironMentors is a fantastic program that connects high school students with science professionals, professors, undergrad and graduate students. Together the mentor pair work on a science experiment that develops skills of the student, ultimately preparing them for college and a career in the sciences. I am happy to announce that we are working towards developing the first EnvironMentors International Chapter. This affiliation will fulfill a component of YME that we have not yet been able to develop;the mentorship program and quality research projects. The structure of the EnvironMentor program will undoubtably take YME to another level and provide new educational opportunities for students throughout the Bahamas. Our goal is to be an official EnvironMentors Chapter by fall 2013 however we will be slowly introducing the EnvironMentors program beginning this september.
DC has proved to be a fantastic networking experience and I am sincerely looking forward to the new experiences to come.......
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Yesterday was the official start of the exchange program along with my birthday..... 25!! And as all good days start a cup of coffee is a must. Our first stop was at World Learning the organization that is coordinating our program. Here we got the briefing of what to expect throughout our travels. This trip is really three weeks of networking and cultural experiences. Which means the fist stop on our agenda was the Environmental protection Agency where we met with the Senior Education Specialist of the Office of Environmental Education. A very organic meeting and discussion, we talked about the need for there to be a paradigm shift in education as opposed to just putting up posters or producing PSA’s but rather a form of environmental education that inspires people to take responsibility of their actions - this requires behavior change and there is no doubt that this is a difficult task. The EPA has been making initiatives to have environmental classes become accredited classes just as a math, science or language class. Teacher training goes hand in hand with this type of initiative as teachers need to be equipped and feel comfortable in a subject area to teach it in the classroom. After leaving the EPA we went to check out the view from the old post office building. and this is what we saw ..... i did think the roof top garden was cool The next stop was to a federalism briefing which i found really interesting. A professor from George Town University gave a talk on the Paradox of American Policy. He elaborated on this point explaining that the US is a country marked by individualism and that individualism is ingrained in the countries history. When the USA was first “created” it was fighting against European absolutisms, that power should not be in the hands of the centralized government but rather power should be decentralized. Noting that the US has a well organized and dense civili society, the professor explained that this in a way is a contradiction to the individual nature of the country. Although individualism is the principle, citizens of the United States form groups based on their interest. The reasoning behind this is capitalisms and that the individual must defend ones own interests. The professor went on to explain that the religious diversity of the United states discourages a centralized government. June 12th Getting up early again we had our first meeting today at 8:30 at world learning again. From their we went to the State department and met with representatives from the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Bureau of Oceans Environment and Science , Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. They spoke specifically about some of the projects that they were working on in Omen and Chile with education and teacher training as well as work taking place in latin america and the Dominica Republic on Energy and Climate projects. It was outside the state department that i was able to take a picture with a cool guy............ Einstein Probably the most exciting meeting for me so far was with the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) www.NCSEonline.org. There we met with their senior scientist and director of education as well as the director of DC EnvironMentors. which takes high school students and pairs them with a professional in the environmental field and together the mentor and the students design a research project which they then work on for the school year. As you can well imagine at this point my wheels where churning and well I have a follow up meeting with them tomorrow to see how we can form a YME - EnvironMentors relationship. They also have some really great resources such as the encyclopedia of earth www.EoEarth.org and an Environmental Internship Clearinghouse www.environmentalinterns.org . Two great resources that I hope students throughout the bahamas take advantage of. The last meeting of the day was at the National Environmental Education Foundation. Their focus is providing resources to teachers K-12 and encouraging them to include environmental concepts inside the classroom when you are teaching spanish, math, or geography. This website is a great source for teachers and I hope that Bahamian teachers can utilize some of the resources that they provide, www.neefusa.org.
Having been afforded an amazing opportunity of representing The Bahamas and participating in a leadership program focusing on Environmental Education sponsored by the US State Department, I am excited to begin my journey. My first full day in DC - I figured that I should check out the White House and the Washington Monument. It was really hot today and I did a lot of walking, it is amazing how different it is when you do not have the ocean breeze. The Smithsonian was high on my to do list - the first stop was the Museum of Natural History.. which probably was an obvious choice for me. The museum was fabulous and I especially liked the Ocean exhibit Being in this exhibit gave me so many ideas of future enviro-education projects. The displays in the museum are fantastic and simple but they do a great job of engaging the audience. One of the main take home messages from the display was... Obviously the answer to that is each one of us but it does truly begin with education. Although I am an Ocean Geek, I could not forget to pay my respects to the giant reptiles that once roamed the land. After the exhibits i watched an IMAX video on corals. It was a bit of a let down. It wasn’t everything that i had hoped for. The storyline began with a man from Fiji who was worried about the coral reef located around his community. The reef was dieing and not at all like it was years ago. As the story progressed a team of scientists conducted a study on the reefs of Fiji, Australia and Indonesia. I guess the things that annoyed me about the movie was that they referred to reef sharks as the “gangsters on the block.” It is possible that I read too much into this but in my head the connotation associated with the word “gangster” = bad/dangerous, therefore sharks would = bad/dangerous. Perhaps this was an attempt of a creative analogy on their part, but through my eyes if we are trying to build a positive image for sharks to protect their population to support the health of coral reefs, we shouldn’t refer to them as something bad. The second thing which was even more frustrating, the main marine biologist was playing with all different animals and holding on to coral, i just think that that sends a bad message - as a diver you should never touch and harass wildlife, let alone kneel on the coral. Anyways perhaps I was a bit more observant than the average watcher. I do however plan to go see another IMAX film before I leave about the arctic and polar bears. As the evening rolled around I was able to explore a really neat cultural spot called “Busboys and Poets” They had an open mic singers and song writers night. A really nice surprise is that I was able to connect with one of my best friends from home who is now living in the DC area. The restaurant supported a non-profit organization that works with inner-city youth so that they can express themselves through photography as they work to create change.... it looked like a really cool project. This was the cover of their menu, can you really ask for more in a menu Ghandi on the cover with a Feminist poem. Another fantastic thing about this restaurant is that they were working really hard to green their menu and serve organic and fair trade items.
The program officially starts tomorrow.... on my birthday, so we will see what June 11th has to bring. |
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The Science BlogIn the spirit of scholarship and adventure my writing explores a range of topics about the ocean, conservation and Small Island Developing States. This island girl, although not always writing from an island hopes to introduce you to the fun and wild side of science! Archives
September 2019
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