Hands-On Educational Magic

If metal balls are tipped down a big board filled with vertically-divided rows, they fall into a bell curve. At least that is what my granddaughter and I caused to happen when we participated in a discovery day at the University of Wisconsin. The effect reminded me of the statistics professor who brought our graduate class a large bowl of colored marbles and a scoop that had indentations we each filled with five marbles and then averaged the number of green marbles to demonstrate how sampling works.

     At a middle school, a remedial math teacher brought in a Makey Makey circuit board, sewing kit, and 3Doodler pen. Students grouped themselves by interest to use each device. When students in a regular math class saw what the remedial math students were doing they voluntarily signed up to attend the math support class twice a week.

     What were the remedial math students doing? They played a song on six bananas wired together and to the circuit board. Some students began seeing how they could make a circle in a football team's logo by embroidering an arrangement of the squares made by cross-stitch Xs, the same way pixels do on a computer screen. By using the 3Doodler pen to draw the same 2-dimensional design over and over again on top of each other, students learned how 3D printing is making a wide variety of products, including homes.

     Finally, students in the regular math class saw how the remedial students purchased additional circuit boards and supplies for the sewing basket and 3Doodler pens by perfectly pricing and selling pencils.

     Students everywhere in the world have creative juices. Invite them to illustrate the books they read, figure out how to move heavy rocks, use as little cushioning as possible to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from different heights, dissect an old watch, not only a frog.

Celebrate Uplifting Efforts to Promote Self Reliance in Africa

On this Easter Sunday, what better time is there to recognize the day-to-day efforts nuns in Tanzania and Kenya make to improve the lives of women and the poor in Africa?

Sister Stella Storch, a member of an order of Dominican nuns who runs a sewing and computer program for orphans whose parents died of AIDS. malaria, and TB in Tanzania, observes, "I've been to a lot of trafficking conferences for years, and they're all rescue programs after the women have been damaged, but this is preventative of trafficking, so that makes this program unique."

Sister Storch aims to develop self-confidence and esteem in young women by teaching skills they can use to earn a living for themselves and their families. She points out how these women love their country and their families, and if they are not hungry, they won't be tempted by traffickers to leave Africa. Sister Storch works with the UN's "Empowering Women's Future AIDS Orphan Sewing Project "(unanima-international.org) that Sister Helllen Bandino of the St. Therese of the Child Jesus order helped found in Bukbuba, Tanzania 16 years ago.

Although nuns and missionaries are inspired by the teachings of Christ, they are practical rather than mystical. "There's no McDonald's for these girls to work at, says Sr. Storch. When girls are hungry, a straight seam isn't important to them, but I have to make a straight seam seem important. I tell my students, without straight seams I can't sell their placemats, napkins, clothing, and bags. To help raise the $5000 needed to buy 20 sewing machines a year from China and ship them over sea and poor roads to the western side of Lake Victoria, Sr. Storch also sells about 100 scarves she knits each year for $20 each.

The girls who board and learn at the Dominican order's motherhouse pray before class, at the end of the day, and for benefactors. When it comes to menstruation, good hygiene, and relationships with men, Sr. Storch says, I teach them "(A)ll the things a mother would normally teach a daughter."

Dominican Missionary Sisters in nearby Kenya have a different challenge, barren land unable to produce food for Nairobi's metropolitan area. One of the Sisters, Dominica Mwila, learned how to do agricultural research from her father, who directs an Agricultural Training Institute. Although the nuns had built six greenhouses to control temperatures, manage drought and rainfall conditions, and prevent loss from insects, rodents, and other wild animals, plants died of wilt disease from a bacteria infection. Research discovered hybrid tomato seeds that resisted the disease.

The Sisters invited local farmers to their greenhouses to see their healthy tomatoes and to share with them information about their farming methods. Harvests outgrew the needs of the religious community which also began to grow peppers, broccoli, maize, onions, and cabbage outdoors as well as in greenhouses. Neighbors used to a two-mile walk to the nearest market were happy to buy the nuns' surplus produce. Revenue from these sales pays salaries of tutors for 80-100 children and farmworkers who come from Nairobi's Kalinde slum for training. The Sisters encourage trainees to use the knowledge and skills they learn to start their own projects.

"Self-sustainability is tough and challenging," Sister Mwila says, but greenhouse farming is a sure way to have food and money. Alleluia!