Boston Museum of Science – Oysters and Pearls

Thanks to Hockaday for Introducing Us to EiE

We are so proud of our Engineering is Elementary program and the difference and influence it has made on our young students. I came to find out about this fantastic program from Amy Banks, a science teacher at the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas.

The Hockaday School now has a post on their website recounting our initial discussion and how they were instrumental in introducing this wonderful program to Oysters & Pearls and sending us and our students on a great road of discovery and priceless learning. Here is a bit of what they have to say:

On October 12, 2012 Lower School science teacher Amy Banks met with Jennifer Nantale, Country Director or Nyaka Aids Orphans Project in Southwest Uganda and Sandra Washburn, Executive Director of Oysters & Pearls. Ms. Banks shared the Engineering is Elementary program and discussed how it is used with students in grades 1-4 at Hockaday. Ms. Banks encouraged her visitors to contact EiE at the Museum of Science in Boston to learn more about the program and how to apply it to their own organizations. Ms. Washburn took this advice, and met with EiE, who arranged to send two volunteers to Northern Uganda to train six teachers at the Gulu

Engineering is Elementary: Do you know this word…Process?

Engineering is Elementary is a program designed to be used within Elementary Schools to relay the concepts of Engineering, using a hands-on approach. Two experienced teachers from Boston Museum of Science arrived in Gulu last Saturday evening and will be teaching two of their 20 modules to two groups of students.

The first stop on Sunday morning was breakfast at San Kofa Café to fortify ourselves for shopping in the market for custom designed clothes in the local African fabrics.

Orientation at the school, for Kate Sokol and Erin Fitzgerald started on Sunday afternoon with a complete tour of the campus, including visiting the inside of each dorm and classroom, the athletic fields, the kitchen and the small pine forest planted in 2005 from seedlings. Every room was orderly and swept spotlessly clean. As far as the eye could scan, there was not a single piece of trash. Our hosts, Rev Ochola and Deputy Headteacher Dolly Oryem gave a detailed history of the school, including events leading up to their Centenary in 2014.

Sixty students in two classes of 30, inclusive of blind and visually impaired students as well as sighted