As a part of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) titled Teaching STEM in English: A Project for Kazakhstan, Pensacola welcomed five education specialists from Kazakhstan in early May. The focus of the program was to exchange ideas and topics about education, with a focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields, in a multilingual environment and how they affect school management and classroom education.
Before the program truly began, one part of the group was welcomed into the home of Ray and Hilda Jones to spend their first night in the United States. Megan Pratt, opened her doors to the other part of the group and invited them to stay with her and her family. The next day, the visitors met up and headed over to meet with the Escambia County Superintendent of Schools, Malcolm Thomas. Together they discussed the district’s Student Progression Plan and the incorporation of STEM, bilingual, and immersion education into the school system. The visitors then were given insight into the local history and more by City Council Executive Don Kraher. The day’s activities were ended at Escambia High School, where the visitors met with Principle Frank Murphy, Dean Jewel Cannada-Wynn, Deputy Superintendent Norm Ross, and the school’s AP STEM students and talked with them about STEM education in Kazakhstan.
The next day began with the visitors experiencing a display of Pensacola’s own Blue Angels and a tour of the Naval Aviation Museum. They then met with NAF Pensacola’s Director of Operations Mark Curley at the National Flight Academy who showed them around and discussed STEM and bilingual education. The visitors rounded off their day by watching the Bands on the Beach show.
The final day the visitors were in Pensacola started with a visit to the Dillon Center to meet Director Michael Thrope and discuss the partnership between Santa Rosa County Schools and Discovery Education in reference to the STEAM Initiative which integrates a STEAM based curriculum into every grade level. Then the visitors visited Inertia to talk with providers and recipients, such as Executive Director Basil Kuloba and Director of Fun Carson Wilber, about the supplementation of classrooms with college students or professionals to engage students in STEM learning. The final activity the visitors did in Pensacola was visit to the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) where they met with Senior Event Specialist Michelle Bowers and spoke about the outreach programs that can be performed to engage school-age children in the sciences. The Gulf Coast Citizen Diplomacy Council thanks everyone who helped make this progress a success.
Volunteering at Feeding the Hungry