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Class on Haiti Promotes Hands-On Learning for Real Change

Upper School students in the "Haiti: A Troubled Past and Optimistic Future” class recently designed and built basic water filters that used river rocks, small gravel, and sand to filter nearby pond water.
 
The assignment was part of the “Infrastructure” section of the course, where students researched the complicated issues affecting the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere through hands on, project-based learning.
 
The class, which is divided into five sections – history, literature, economics, language, and infrastructure –is team taught by US history teacher Miten Patel; science teacher Chris Roads; English teacher Stuart Mills and French teacher Amy Myles; as well as Director of Operations Jesse Schumacher. The course culminates in March with a trip to Nordette, Haiti, a rural village in the mountainous region of the Central Plateau. There, CA works with St. Patricks of Nordette, a school that serves more than 100 students.
 
According to Mills, the water filter project created an opportunity for students to learn more about the issues affecting the country while also brainstorming solutions.
 
The project saw students in five groups, four of which had an impediment of some kind. “For example, one group had no electricity and so they couldn’t use power tools,” says Mills.
 
“We were trying to give students real world context to mimic some of the issues that could arise when designing solutions in Haiti. Next, we’ll complete a grant writing unit in order to try to get funding for their ideas,” says Mills.
 
"Haiti: A Troubled Past and Optimistic Future” is a course designed by CA faculty to prepare students to travel to Nordette. Shortly after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, CA began working with St. Patrick’s school to find meaningful and sustainable ways to make improvements in conditions there; this is the third year CA students will travel there. Since the partnership began, CA also has partnered with The Road to Hope, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the children of Haiti. The organization has provided funding and infrastructure support to projects in Nordette and elsewhere around Haiti.
 
“This type of real-world, project-based learning that students can apply to actual experiences creates long lasting lessons that you can’t necessarily replicate in the classroom,” says Mills.

You Can Get involved!
The Road to Hope is putting together a medical/ dental trip, in cooperation with Project Cure.  The trip will benefit two areas in Haiti, one of which will be Nordette (the location of CA's sister school there.)  These doctors and dentists will provide care to hundreds of folks, but will also put some serious thought and plan into the medical clinic that Road to Hope is planning to build in the next year.  Project Cure will also be supplying this clinic and helping to provide local training.   
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