By now, most of you know that the main purpose of our expedition is not only to educate ourselves, but those around us and inspire them to learn more about the world they live in. In the back of our minds, we have always wanted to have the expedition become a vehicle for education and especially for kids. Our education initiative has taken shape over the last several months and we are very excited about some of the relationships we have developed with schools and educators here in the Denver area and across the country.
We have partnered specifically with the Denver Center for International Studies. DCIS is a 6-12 magnet school in the Denver Public School System and one of their main focuses is on international culture and education. All students must take one of several foreign languages and classroom learning is centered around geography, international relations and cultures. We will be doing several excitng things in conjunction with DDCIS. One of the projects we will be participating in is our "day in the life" section. We are going to follow one of the students at DCIS around for a day, filming them before school, at school, participating in after school activities and interacting with family and friends. As we travel around the world we will show children in other countries what a day in the life of an American student is like, and conversely, will be filming various "day in the life" segments of students in those countries to share with the kids at DCIS. Other projects we are working on include helping students learn about media and video production in the context of an international news show that students will be producing and the student selection and production of a photography exhibit in conjunction with Global Denver.
Additionally, we will be producing both photographic and video content focusing on things such as food, clothing, dwellings and other culturally relevant topics to enhance what teachers are already providing in the classroom. Our expedition will offer the students at DCIS a unique and exciting way to learn more about the countries that they are studying.
Initially, our main focus will be our interaction with students and faculty at DCIS, however, once we have fine-tuned the program, our content will be available on an open-source educational website we hope will serve as a resource to students and educators all over the country. We already have interest from educators in schools and districts in several states and with help from the International Social Schools Association based out of the University of Denver, lesson plans and curriculum ideas will be available to a growing network of educational institutions. Ultimately, we hope to develop this educational initiative into its own self-sustaining, non-profit branch of The World By Road.
The education initiative is a worthwhile endeavor, but entails a lot of work. Heading up our educational initiative while we are on the road will be Jessica Sherwood. Jessica will act as a liaison between the expedition members and our partners to help insure that the content we are providing will be useful to educators as they teach their students about the world around them. Jessica comes to us with a wealth of knowledge in both non-profit management and education and we are excited to have her on board helping us out with what we hope to be the start of a great resource.
For those who are interested, we will be giving a school-wide presentation at DCIS on November 29th. We hope to have some local media coverage of the event so check back soon for more details.
