By Andrea Santiago | Fundraising Officer
For two weeks, friends allied with the Alejandro Tapia y Rivera (ATP) school in La Parguera offered summer workshops to 38 students on marine and coastal ecosystems, and on environmental photojournalism.
The dream of achieving these training spaces for young people was born from the school guides, who knew many resources in the community that could provide experiences that enrich the curriculum.
The friends of Sea Grant, CARICOOS and Marine Sciences managed to give students from 12 to 17 years old incredible experiences in marine ecosystems near their school community.
They visited Magueyes Island, the Caribe Fisheries aquaculture farm, did snorkeling, fishing workshops, sargassum, worked with sea urchins among other living beings, and built an aquaponic system.
In the photojournalism workshops they were taught about photography, videos, editing, writing texts that describe the visual piece, and how to document the experiences they had during the week.
At the end, they were able to present to their families everything documented and learned in this great experience that is made accessible to secondary school students.
This is the first time that the Alejandro Tapia y Rivera school manages to have summer workshops like these for students. It should be noted that thanks to more than 30 people these workshops were possible.
''For me it was an extraordinary experience, the same for my colleagues, because we were able to see first-hand the need and lack of knowledge that students have about the coastal areas of Puerto Rico, so it was an opportunity to strengthen that area that even the parents present the last day asked for them”, shared Efra Figueroa, Coordinator of the summer workshops.
The ATP school is part of the Public Montessori project and has a focus on Marine Sciences, which is why last March CARICOOS signed a collaborative agreement with the Department of Education to have efforts like these in said school and with a view to more schools benefit from these topics and experiences so important and enriching for the students of Puerto Rico.
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