Experimentation

By Mim and Brie
 

After the first week of EHELD Fast Start camp, we’ve had some time to reflect on the experiences that we’ve had with our students, our staff, and each other.  While there are five camps around Liberia, our team felt privileged when we found out we would be teaching at Firestone Senior High School, the educational powerhouse that produces Division 1 and 2 WAEC (West African Examination Council) students year after year.  We were also privileged to have a visit from the Mission Director of USAID in Liberia, the Chief of Party of EHELD, and our University of Michigan Team Leader Jose Alfaro, all of whom said a few words to welcome to the students to the program.  Then we got to work…

                                                           Martha and Siah  playing "Pirates" IceBreaker

Because our camp was a day camp, we woke up every morning at 5:30 am to make it to Firestone by 7 am, the first day only to see students showing up four hours late.  We drilled the students on respect, punctuality, and integrity, and by the end of the second day, we saw massive improvements.  Life Skills is one of the classes we teach at Fast Start, and some students initially failed to see its importance, both in the classroom and in the professional world.  We had an opportunity to sit down with a Liberian professor who had been living and teaching in the U.S. for the past forty years.  He couldn’t believe how Liberia had changed.  He gave us his blessing for this program and said this is exactly what Liberia needs to help re-develop both its infrastructure and social stability.  He stressed to us that during this camp, we need to emphasize group-work for these students.  During the war, he said, thousands of people were targeted for the tribal dialect they spoke.  Horrible things happened to these people, and Liberian English helped this country form a more cohesive society.  “This is what the students need to do,” he said.

                                                            Emmanuel and Jefferson 

                                               Dorothy and Benedict learning about Agricultural Disciplines

 We are becoming increasingly impressed with these students’ ability and willingness to help each other.  Some “helping” is not as noble as others, but when we see the real kind in action, it gives you such a positive feeling for the future of Liberia: the future that these students will be leading.

On Tuesday we were straight into it. We discussed engineering, emphasized the importance of working as a team, introduced a partner to the class in English, talked about physics, as well as the history and parts of computers, and learned about sustainability and the UN Millennium Development Goals.

We introduced agriculture, showed students how to apply for college, what scholarships are available and made biogas from waste. One bottle had manure, another food scraps and the other soil. We then capped it with a balloon to see which would generate the most gas over the next week. Students measure the circumference and material levels daily, taking note of any changes. 

                          Students conducting aquifer experiment                                 

Students then made their own aquifers in Exploratory. They were fascinated at the different layers of soil and enjoyed learning about how their drinking wells access water in the same way. We spoke about water pollution and started brainstorming ways on how to purify and filter their water sources from contaminants.

                                                                  Students making biogas from waste!

Perhaps the best feeling is not that we taught the students that you can purify water using sunlight or produce electricity from wind, but rather that these ideas were so foreign to them, that they begin to think differently about the world around them.  I received a question of “why don’t apples grow in Liberia?”, which launched a mind-blowing discussion of greenhouses, recycling, and international trade.  After the students saw that it was actually good to ask questions, they couldn’t stop.  Many of the questions they asked were more thought-provoking and real than those asked in my Master’s program at the University of Michigan.  The last three days have not only opened up the students’ minds about the interdependence of engineering and agriculture in Liberia, but it has given them a look into different cultures.  We talked with students about our homes and asked them about theirs.  Indeed, there were differences, but even more striking were the similarities.  We all cook, we all wash clothes, we all like to be with family and friends.  We are making progress in great strides.

On the first day, the students’ best idea of agriculture and engineering was fertilizer and irrigation.  At the end of the day on Friday, two students came to ask me, “so if you can cook with gas made from waste, can cars use it too?”