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The school I was at was working with very limited resources, and was in an area where many students had socioeconomic troubles. The school actually worked in two shifts (morning and evening) because it could not accommodate all its students at once. They were very low on things like working scientific equipment. They had only one working microscope, shelves full of 30-year old (read: EXPIRED) chemicals, broken beakers, broken volt meters, etc. But I was inspired by the perseverance by some of the teachers in doing their best with what they had. There were also significant problems with student discipline, and with having to breakdown the curriculum to accommodate "remedial" students who had trouble reading and writing.
So these were some of the problems; but nevertheless I had a wonderful time observing and helping at the school. I met many bright and inquisitive students. They were almost all very friendly (I got greeted and called "Sir" left and right). The students were partly very interested in me because they were not used to seeing anyone with such fair skin at their school. Trinidad has a significant Caucasian population, but not in the area the school was in. I was able to capitalize on the students' fascination with me to tell them about some reasons why science is so cool (e.g. we've got spaceships on the way to Mars to investigate possibilities of 'alien' life, we can ask big questions like 'how does the brain work' and begin to answer them with science, and anyone can be a scientist, not just weird geniuses).
One of the teachers I worked most closely with had me help with class demonstrations, and with checking the students' homework. The latter gave me a window on the wide range of abilities the students had. Some could copy down words from the chalkboard but were unable to read them back and understand them. Some had a very difficult time understanding the idea of making a "table of differences" (to compare features of plant and animal cells). And some students excelled.
On my last day at the school, I taught an entire hour-long lesson I had put together myself, on cell specialization. I went outside and pulled three different pieces off a banana tree (leaf, fruit, bark) and asked the classes if they thought the three parts were made up of the same kind of cells or different. They had their ideas, and I had a vote and established our hypothesis (different parts of a plant have different kinds of cells). So then we used the one working microscope to TEST our hypothesis by looking at three different slides I'd made. After all the students had compared the slides I had another vote based on what they saw, and we concluded that, yes, different kinds of cells make up different parts of a plant. The students seemed to enjoy the process and I made sure to point out that what they were doing was exactly the same as what scientists do! I also did my best to make funny noises during cell impersonations and to be really enthusiastic so as to capture the students' attention and interest, which proved to be the number one challenge.
CLINICS
While I was at the school the first week, the other students (all pre-medical) were at a hospital doing training and observing. But the second week, I rejoined them to help out with the several clinics we did. We went to several locations and set up free medical and eye clinics, which had been advertised ahead of time. The students would take in patients and gather info on their medical history, symptoms, etc before they were seen by our stupendously awesome team doctor, Dr. Wil Johnson. We saw a wide variety of cases, ranging from arthritis to uncommon tropical illnesses. We were able to provide medication we'd brought with us for some purposes, and the doctor was able to recommend actions to take or procedures needed, etc.
For the eye clinic, we were able to make very low-cost custom prescription glasses for people after determining their prescription with a portable focometer. We were also able to provide reading glasses. I helped out in this area a lot, and was able to relate things from my own experience to the people. Even though I don't have a very strong prescription, getting glasses made a big difference for me in the way I experience the world. I could also tell them how to adjust/fix glasses and other random things to expect.
It was rewarding to see the gratefulness of people we were able to help. "Truly, god sent you!" said one man after I'd helped his wife and daughter get glasses. It was also amazing to witness the vigor and vitality of the people: many looked at least ten years younger than they actually were! Each clinic was a tiring, all-day event with almost no downtime; so they were hard work but entirely worth it.
CONTINUED...
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