The Final Chapter at Saint Barnabas

Some students reaching out to the howler monkey. SO COOL!

          Wowee has our time at Saint Barnabas flown by! We’ve finally finished our time teaching at the school, with our final moments spent trying to cram in all of the things we'd hoped to do.

           In our last week of teaching at Saint Barnabas we covered the beautiful coral reef ecosystem. In an effort to continue our use of interactive lesson plans, we adapted the game “Red Rover” to demonstrate the effects of numerous threats to the coral reefs in Belize. One team represented different types of coral found in a reef and the second team represented threats to the coral reef. In the beginning of the game, we had students holding hands and then gradually we had them transition to just holding fingers to show that overtime the effects of threats on the coral reef make it more difficult for the reef to fight off threats.

            To do a final review of all the material that we covered in class throughout the four weeks, we answered the long list of questions that students had previously come up with concerning any of the material. We also handed out a final in class assessment based off of the set up of the BSNE test they would be taking the following week. After seeing the results of our students, we were extremely impressed by how well they did, considering how tricky we made it. Our students also later informed us that they felt very confident about the BSNE because, a large amount of the material that we covered in class was on the exam. We were so proud to hear the news!

Diana and Amber holding a boa constrictor!

Listening to info about the CBS in the museum

Our final day with our wonderful Standard 6 class was spent visiting two local conservation efforts. Our first stop was at the Community Baboon Sanctuary in Bermudian Landing. The original plan was only to go to the Community Baboon Sanctuary, but because of extra time and funds we were able to stop at the Belize Zoo on the way back to Saint B. We wanted to provide our students with an opportunity to observe a grassroots effort to conserve both land and species of Belize. The excitement that our students had when they were able to feed and scratch a howler monkey was priceless. Our last minute decision to visit the zoo proved to be successful, especially because most of our students got to hold a boa constrictor!

The whole gang after our tour of the Community Baboon Sanctuary

            The ladies of Saint Barnabas all attended our project presentation, led by their queen Ms. Shaw. We felt so supported with the entire staff of Saint Barnabas in attendance. Although all good things must come to an end, I think it’s safe to say that Saint Barnabas, Ms. Shaw, her staff and the students at Saint Barnabas will always have a close place in our hearts.

The three of us with our incredible project partners Ms. Shaw and Ms. Gonzales at our presentation

-Alyson Wall, Melanie Daly, and Diana del Solar