Teachers use all sorts of techniques to help students learn and retain information, whether that’s lab work to make abstract concepts more concrete, or a song about verb conjugations that you can play in your mind.
Today, we’re back at the Rubondo Secondary School to help teachers in their mission to promote hands on learning by creating raised beds for their agricultural class.
The five new raised beds, formed in concrete blocks that are wide enough for the students to sit on while hanging out in between classes, would house plants that the students could take care of throughout the year, encompassing the whole cycle from planting to harvesting.
So, with a number of travelers from the United States and across our programs in Sudan, South Sudan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand and Uganda, we got a team together to plant tomato and cabbage seedlings with the students and their agricultural teacher.
As the travelers stood side by side the students, planting and watering, the agriculture teacher went around, pointing out small things here and there to get the students thinking.
With the students planting tomato seedlings, he explained that in a couple of weeks, they would construct cages that the tomato plants could climb onto and grow stronger. “All of the students at the school learn how to do agricultural work,” he said, “and it’s especially important in a remote community like Rubondo that relies so heavily on agriculture as a livelihood.”
After planting, we decorated the raised beds — some of them stayed bright and white, while others included sweet messages to the other students, explaining what they imagined the future of their garden to be.
