STEMPoderate!

 

Written by Ana Sofía Santamaría-10th Grade Student

As ABC students, we foresee that our futures will be bright as reflected by our context and the educational opportunities we regularly receive. Most of us are confident that we will become excellent doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. However, not all the youth in El Salvador have these certainties, but most dream of becoming a professional. 

At our school, all girls know that they can pursue any interest they desire; yet, outside our community, not all girls believe they can do so. Due to this, in El Salvador, less than one-third of graduates in STEM are female. This saddening statistic led me to design a project to empower girls from low-income institutions by exposing them to the different branches and possibilities within STEM. 

For this week's meeting, Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Serrano were the guest speakers who introduced the girls to robotics and technology. All the girls in the project have big aspirations, and many are interested in technology, medicine, and engineering, but often, what they perceive as limitations don't let them believe this is possible. The project aims to accompany the girls throughout their academic year, introducing them to the various possibilities in STEM, and aiming to empower them to apply for scholarships and seek out other opportunities to pursue their goals.

STEAM Fest 2021 has Launched!

The long-awaited online Exhibition launched on Wednesday of this week. 

Projects for this modified version of our annual STEAM Fest extravaganza were drawn from the work of students across the secondary school, the majority of which were developed in their ICT lessons, but some of which were developed by the students outside of lessons as well. 

We invite you to view the site and the projects on our STEAM Fest website. Do be aware that much of the content is set at private, viewable by the ABC community, in order to protect the privacy of our students. If you cannot view it, do ask your son or daughter, brother or sister to log in with their ABC credentials so you can view it together.

Workshop: Overcoming the Challenges of Confinement-The Academia Britanica Cuscatleca’s Learning Resource Center (LRC).

Written by the LRC Librarians

English Version

This year we participated once again in the Salvadoran Library Association's Cultural Week. This year was the 32nd and was declared the Ibero-American Year of Libraries- Libraries Building the Future.

During the sessions, we shared our experiences with the challenges brought on by a change from interactive physical spaces to interactive virtual spaces, as well as the tools that allowed us to facilitate these changes. 

We also discussed the challenges of online education, in particular the lack of access to our physical teaching resources (computers, book collections, 3D design printing equipment, electronics, and robotics sets, the kitchen, and more) and how we managed to facilitate electronic access to learning in these areas, albeit in a different manner.

One of the main challenges we focused on was the need to modify our approaches as we went from having personal contact with students and sharing learning experiences, in an environment rich in educational resources available to students, to a more restricted environment via online access and communications.

In doing so we were able to share how this experience not only allowed us to operate fully with modifications during the closure of spaces brought on by the pandemic but also impacted the manner in which we will operate post-pandemic. The result was a series of short workshops in which we taught our colleagues some basic practices for services that can be delivered electronically and with it provided a list of useful, free, resources that can be shared with the rest of the community. 

We focused on the ease of use and the potential impact the following tools can bring to any library setting:

-Create interactive spaces with slides and Bitmoji 

- Basic photo editing

- Google devices

- Websites

- Canva

It was a pleasure to always share with our fellow librarians and teachers, to create important links here at home and abroad, and continue to learn together as a community.

Taller: Superar los desafíos del encierro. El caso del Centro de Recursos de Aprendizaje de la Academia Britanica Cuscatleca (LRC).

Spanish Version

Este año participamos una vez más en la Semana Cultural de la Asociación de Bibliotecarios Salvadoreños. Este año fue el número 32 y fue declarado Año Iberoamericano de las Bibliotecas - Bibliotecas Construyendo el Futuro.

En el contexto de la pandemia, compartimos con la comunidad más amplia de bibliotecarios nuestras experiencias con los desafíos provocados por el cambio de espacios físicos interactivos a espacios virtuales interactivos, así como las herramientas que nos permitieron facilitar estos cambios.

Al hacerlo, reflexionamos sobre los desafíos de la educación en línea, en particular la falta de acceso a nuestros recursos físicos de enseñanza (computadoras, colecciones de libros, equipos de impresión de diseño 3D, conjuntos de electrónica y robótica, la cocina y más) y cómo logramos facilitar acceso electrónico al aprendizaje en estas áreas, aunque de manera diferente.

El principal desafío fue, sin duda, nuestra mentalidad al pasar de tener contacto personal con los estudiantes y compartir experiencias de aprendizaje, en un entorno rico en recursos educativos disponibles para los estudiantes, a un entorno más restringido a través del acceso y las comunicaciones en línea. Al hacerlo, pudimos compartir cómo esta experiencia no solo nos permitió operar completamente con modificaciones durante el cierre de espacios provocado por la pandemia, sino que también impactó la forma en que operaremos después de la pandemia. El resultado fue una serie de talleres cortos en los que les enseñamos a nuestros colegas algunos conceptos básicos para los servicios que se pueden entregar electrónicamente y con ello proporcionamos una lista de recursos útiles y gratuitos que se pueden compartir con el resto de la comunidad.

Al hacerlo, nos centramos en la facilidad de uso y el impacto potencial que las siguientes herramientas pueden aportar a cualquier entorno de biblioteca:

-Crear espacios interactivos con diapositivas y Bitmoji

- Edición de fotos básica

- Dispositivos de Google

- Sitios web

- Canva

Fue un placer compartir siempre con nuestros compañeros bibliotecarios y profesores, para crear vínculos importantes aquí en casa y en el extranjero y seguir aprendiendo juntos como comunidad.