UNC Sea Grant 



V 



October 1985 



, , State UD>a"- ti. 0. 



a)AST Swatch 



Puerto Rican exchange takes 

 teachers back to school 



Photo by Sarah Friday 



t didn't take much 



advertising for 



Lundie Spence, 

 UNC Sea Grant's 

 marine education 

 specialist, to round 

 up a group of qual- 

 ified teachers for a 

 special workshop in 

 Puerto Rico July 14 

 to 22. Sixteen edu- 

 cators from North 

 Carolina and 

 Puerto Rico signed 

 on the dotted line, 

 paid their money 

 and joined Spence 

 and Juan Gonzalez, 

 Puerto Rico Sea 

 Grant's marine edu- 

 cation specialist, for 

 a unique cultural 

 and scientific ex- 

 change program on 

 the southwestern 

 coast of the island. 

 For the entire week, 

 it was the teachers' 

 turn to learn. 



"This was a pilot program to see if the two educa- 

 tion systems could work bilingually and biculturally. 

 And it did," says Spence. "It took some translators. 

 But on the whole, because we were using hands-on ac- 

 tivities, language and culture were not a barrier. 

 There was a definite exchange and a comradery." 



Wanted: Teachers with a 

 sense of adventure and a 

 desire to explore. Must be will- 

 ing to travel. Full-time one 

 week position available. Fringe 

 benefits to last a lifetinne. 



Eight teachers 

 from North 

 Carolina and eight 

 from Puerto Rico 

 crossed the lan- 

 guage barrier and 

 brought the class- 

 room to life in the 

 mountains, on the 

 beaches and in the 

 fields of Puerto 

 Rico. The group 

 spent part of the 

 time in the class 

 sharing curricula 

 and studying the 

 island's ecosystems, 

 and the rest of the 

 time probing those 

 habitats. 



For the teachers, 

 this was a trip on 

 the nature trail of 

 their dreams. Coral 

 reefs, mangrove 

 swamps, tropical 

 caves, experimental 

 farms, rain forests 

 and bioluminescent 

 waters were located within two hours of their base in 

 the village of Parguera. 



"With a small amount of driving, these teachers 

 were able to see a great diversity of habitats," says 

 Spence. That's one reason she and Gonzalez chose 



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