Blog – Page 5 – Oysters and Pearls

A Ticket to Uganda

A quiet night spent by the Nile River

I can remember my first conversation with Sandra Washburn of Oysters & Pearls…it was like it was yesterday. I was spending time in my hometown, Boston, teaching some workshops at the Artisan’s Asylum. Pacing my hotel room on a dreary, rain filled day I spent about an hour giving Sandra information about what I felt were the best ways to educate a population about technology. I had my hands full working with SparkFun Electronics to help achieve this goal in the United States, where we partnered with people like the Artisan’s Asylum, M.I.T., various library systems, IT-oLogy, thousands of schools, camps, organizations and other well intentioned people. Teaching Introduction to Electronics and Soldering in Uganda

Sandra was talking about doing the same thing in Uganda, but with much less existing or supportive infrastructure, and for a population that sometimes has never even seen a computer before. I gave her as much information as I could and promised to connect her to a man I

Lindsay Craig2022-02-28T23:22:44+03:00

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

Sandra Washburn2022-02-28T23:22:44+03:00Tags: African Education, African Learning Program, Boston Museum of Science, Engineering is Elementary|

What a Cool Shade

“What a cool shade I have got from she providing proper canopy from the blazing sun!”

The eloquence of Komakech Denis’ passage captures the heart of our mission whether it is to protect from destructive elements or cultivate and build on the helping and nurturing ones. Denis finished his A-level in December 2013 and we are awaiting confirmation that he will be granted a full scholarship to Makere University to start the journey to becoming a lawyer in August 2014.

Komakech Denis first lessons on the computer with teacher Marilyn Bland

Having access to a computer can be a real game-changer to a blind or visually-impaired person on so many levels. Being able to type and print one’s schoolwork for submission to a sighted teacher, accessing the internet, “listening” to a vast amount of content whether it is scanned books or downloaded material and even the chance to write an email that is received across the globe can have a big impact.

Denis is 20 years old; he was a peer computer teacher during Holiday trainings for 2 ½ years and the students have always praised his technique. He has started a

Sandra Washburn2022-03-03T00:42:45+03:00

Fine Arts Training April 2014

I’d like to share some photos I just received of the Fine Arts Training. This session was taught by Brianna Schuyler and Odoch Daniel to the blind students. Brianna related that some of the students didn’t know what to do when they began, but they eventually started playing with the wiki sticks and made some great stuff. I agree!
fine-art-class-1
fine-art-class-2
fine-art-class-3

Sandra Washburn2022-02-28T23:22:44+03:00

Squeeze Them Like a Sponge: Engineering at Gulu Primary

For one week in November, I had the amazing opportunity and support of Sandra and Oysters and Pearls to continue the work of Erin Fitzgerald and Kate Sokol, who introduced the Engineering is Elementary (EiE) curriculum to Gulu Primary School in the summer, a school which is inclusive of students who are visually impaired. The curriculum has students go through a five-step process called the engineering design process, and collaborate to engineer a technology to solve a specific problem. Erin and Kate taught two of the EiE units, as the teachers observed and began to co-teach. After the two weeks, with Sandra’s help, contact with the teachers and administration was kept up. The opportunity arose to go back in November, to do more professional development with teachers, introduce another unit, and observe them teach in order to provide support and feedback. Unfortunately, Teacher Kate was unable to attend, which made the teachers and students very sad. I consider myself extremely lucky I was able to step into Teacher Kate’s role.

Engineering at Gulu Primary Erin and I excitedly geared up for our trip. Our goal was to bring minimal amounts of material, and plan with the teachers how to locally source as many materials

Michelle Dileso2022-03-03T00:46:34+03:00

Nyaka Aids Orphans Schools & More

giving-computers-to-nyaka Whenever and however we can, we support the Nyaka Aids Orphans Project in Southwestern Uganda. With two Primary Schools in operation, a health clinic, a water pump, libraries that are inclusive of the community under their belt, they are building a vocational school and a Secondary School at the Nyaka campus. You can read the story of their founding in “A School for My Village” by Jackson Kaguri. In June 2013, we purchased 18 computers, 8 of which went to the teachers in Nyaka and 10 of which are used in partnership with Fundi Bots, an NGO teaching Robotics to schoolchildren throughout Uganda.

Here are some of the emails I received after the teachers received the laptops:

Hullo Sandra,

How are you doing? I wish to appreciate for your donation.

Sincerely, I am very happy using a computer which has helped me in teaching and compiling classwork.

May God bless you.

Ahumuza Annet

Dear Sandra

I am very happy for the good services you normally render to us.

The computers you gave us are contributing much towards our desires of performance.

This means that you want us to succeed in life. May the good Lord continue to protect

Sandra Washburn2022-03-03T00:49:02+03:00Tags: African Education, African Learning Program, Jackson Kaguri, Nyaka Aids Orphan School, Uganda|

Teaching Math to the Visually-Impaired in Uganda

When I came to Gulu High School last January, my first task as a Peace Corps volunteer was to identify areas of need in the school. After a number of conversations with different administrators and teachers, it was obvious that while there had been valuable efforts to make accommodations for the students with visual impairments, there were still many ways that these students were not on an equal playing field with the sighted students. There was a Braille embosser (to "print" Braille documents), a computer lab and a very dedicated Head of the Special Needs Department (Odoch Daniel).

However, Daniel explained to me that there was no math teacher for the visually impaired students. Instead, they were placed into the class for sighted students where the lectures were predominantly visual, and it was effectively impossible for a visually impaired student to follow. It would have been possible to incorporate visually impaired students in a lecture to a class of perhaps 20 or 30 students, but when you have 90 students in a class (as is common across Uganda) it is incredibly difficult to accommodate students with special needs in your lessons.

And so the students focused on their other classes and routinely failed their national

Brianna Schuyler2022-02-28T23:22:44+03:00

Canes for the Vision-Impaired

Dear Sandra,
I have given four white canes out yesterday during my training with a group of persons with disabilities at St. Jude Consolation Home. It was a big group consisting of different types of disabilities. Among the group there was Lucy, Lakwonyero, Santos and others. I have called this meeting to organize the disabled persons within the Municipality into groups of four and have them elect their leaders in order for them to seek assistance from non-governmental organizations and other charitable organizations. It worked well and the elected leaders will meet on the 13th Sept. to discuss a way forward and report back to members on 11th Oct.

Man having just received his white cane. There were new blind persons that attended the meeting and they requested me to obtain for them the white canes. I have given some to a few because I only have very small canes (for young children) only. If you have the possibility of getting more white canes it would help me addressing their needs.

Samuel

The letter above was written by the director of the St. Jude’s Consolation Home. Samuel was the one who introduced us to the two schools in Gulu that are inclusive of blind

Sandra Washburn2022-03-03T00:51:22+03:00Tags: Africa, Canes for the Blind, Uganda, Vision-Impaired|

Teaching Robotics in Africa

Linz Craig from SparkFun was invited to teach a course in robotics to our students. Here are his thoughts and a great video of his journey.

Please enjoy Linz Craig’s blog: Teaching Robotics in Africa.

Sandra Washburn2022-02-28T23:22:45+03:00Tags: Africa, African Education, African Learning Program, Robotics, Uganda|

Holiday Training – August 2013

Literature Lesson This break is the most important one of the year for academics because the O-Level (Secondary Four) and A-Level (Secondary Six) candidates will take their National Exams just a few shorts weeks after returning in mid-September. We have limited the Holiday Training to those candidates and the two forms below them.

Many, but not all, of our students have the Booksense player which enables them to listen to the day’s lessons or books that have been scanned during their off hours. Others will read their Braille notes, which have been typed over the past few years, bound and carefully guarded. Achieving a Division I or II result is extremely important for these students to reach their dream of attending college. Their aspirations range from lawyer to journalist to teacher and other careers.

Even with their parents help, to afford the travel and living expenses associated with university level, some scholarship will be needed. Achieving at least three scores at the top level will assure a spot and some scholarship funding.

$Math Lesson$ We are particularly proud of our brave A-Level candidates who have chosen to sit for the Sub-Computer Mandatory Test from which they are exempt. These three are path-breakers for all

Sandra Washburn2022-03-03T00:52:32+03:00