This
fall Upper School’s Years 3, 4 and 5 participated in an internet cultural
exchange with students in the United States of America. This project was
facilitated by Co-nect, an educational consulting
company near Boston,
Massachusetts. From March until June, our students communicated via postcard,
e-mail, and internet discussion with students from New Jersey, Nebraska and
Florida. Students told each other about their schools, studies, languages,
families, hobbies, sports teams, foods, dreams for the future and much, much
more!
This
project not only required the students to use technology to communicate, but
also required that students act as researchers and teachers. In order to become
experts on their cities, students conducted research on their school and city.
They spent over a month studying local newspapers and other sources dealing with
their home city. They interviewed experts (parents, teachers, neighbours) to
obtain various perspectives about life in their city. Using the data that they
gathered from their research, each set of students – Argentine and North
American – taught their foreign counterparts about their school and cities.
Finally, students used their counterparts’ work to compare and contrast the
lives of Upper School’s students with the lives of students in the United
States of America. Our students delighted in learning about similarities and
differences between Argentine and North American cultures!
