Welcome

Last year's trip to Costa Rica showed us that education can, and should, be a life-altering experience. This year, a largely new group of students, have decided to learn about and travel to Puerto Rico. With this new topic and destination in mind, we have developed a year-long interdisciplinary class that is based on the same three core principles:

1) Travel to expand students' horizons
2) An explicit connection between the classroom and real world
3) The use of sweat equity for students to see that their efforts can make a difference

During the early fall, the curriculum was largely focused on developing the 21st Century Skills of problem solving, critical thinking, decision-making, and collaboration. This was initially done using group challenges in the classroom, but then became vitally important once we started raking lawns. In addition to being our major fundraiser, this hard work put students in positions that required group problem solving, as well as perseverance and responsibility – traits that we all know are central to changing the trajectory of their lives.

During the winter and spring, each student will be developing an independent research project on a chosen aspect of Puerto Rico. We hope that you will keep checking back as we share our learning, growth and adventures.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Shipwrecks in Puerto Rico

               Puerto Rico is well known for their wildlife and rain forests but what else is there to discover in this foreign land? What about under the ocean surrounding the small island? My project is about ship wrecks off the coasts of Puerto Rico. This is a very interesting topic to me. I have learned a lot of background information about the history of the island just by the kinds of ships and the history behind the way the they sank, or what they carried aboard the vessels. The most common ships I have read about are the spanish merchandise ships that carried hundred to thousands of pounds in gold and other valuables such as diamonds. The most amazing vessel I have discovered in my research would be the six passenger airplane that sunk in over 50 feet of water. The habitats that these ships have created for the sea life is absolutely amazing. Hundreds of different species of coral grow on these vessels and along with them come many different fish and other sea life. My next step in my research is going to be looking for a wreck that is close enough to the shore so that we can possibly visit it. Also I am looking into how these ships stay in the condition they are in after hundreds of years in the high acidic environment of the salty ocean.
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