Team
MohanConcord High School, NH, United States
RodrigoEscuela de Minas "Dr Horacio Carrillo", Argentina
ConstanzaEscuela de Minas "Dr Horacio Carrillo", Argentina
VeronicaEscuela de Minas "Dr Horacio Carrillo", Argentina
MariaEscuela de Minas "Dr Horacio Carrillo", Argentina
MayraEscuela de Minas "Dr Horacio Carrillo", Argentina
Age Range
19 & under
Coaches
Claudia PrestonArgentina
Ricardo Fernando Sueiro y SueiroEscuela de Minas "Dr. Horacio Carrillo" (UNJU), Argentina
Category
Social Sciences & Culture > Conflict Resolution
Audience
Ages 15 and up
Language
English, Spanish
Site Features
Online Activity / Game
Reading Guide / Book Guide
Quiz
Teacher Resources (Lesson Plans, Worksheets)
Photo Gallery
Video / Sound
Team Collaboration
We were, and still are, quite worried about merchandise carriers. So we chose the topic and got our research started. But something was missing… we wondered how much people knew about it in other places in the world. We got in contact with Krishna, from New Hampshire in the USA, who immediately put his hands to work.
Mayra told us what her mother experienced when she was living in the region. This was a starting point for us to organize a content list for the website and divide the tasks for each member. In one of the meetings Vero said “we have been told about it, but we have to go there and get the information by ourselves”.
We told the headmistress at school about our high expectations with this project, and after some meetings with our coaches, she decided not only to authorize us to travel there, but also to join us in our journey providing the means of transport to do so.
Having knowledge about people’s feelings there, Mayra felt it would be significant for her to be in charge of the “life stories” section. Belén organized the research work and helped Verónica to prepare and analyze the interviews, as well as the school talk. Inspired by observing a little girl during our visit to Villazón, Cony proposed to make some drawings about one of those child’s thoughts. She also kept taking notes during the whole trip, so she offered to do “the journey’s diary” section. As regards Rodrigo, we can say that he did quite a hard work with the design, always listening opinions and suggestions about it. He gave movement to Cony’s drawings and added the scripts for deaf people visiting the site. After putting in order the material collected, we shared it with Krishna. He planned a campaign for spreading the word to kids about our age who gave their opinions. He concluded his work with an emotive essay. Besides, he helped with the language.
The hardest moment we face was getting the merchandise carriers’ interviews, because one salient characteristic of people in the region is that they are very shy, so it is difficult to get them to speak. We were so worried about not getting their experiences that we immediately proposed not taking personal photos while listening to their stories, and just two of us met them. This proposal worked quite well.
In spite of being quite a hard topic to deal with, we had a great time sharing opinions, organizing online and personal debates. Every decision was made taking into consideration the acceptance of all team members, always supported and guided by our coaches.
Co-operative work was the basis for creating this website
Team Diversity
Our team consists of members not only facing a different language but also a different socioeconomic background, due to Argentina is still a developing country. The digital bridge between the US and Argentina was lessen by the effort all team members did to keep in touch
English was a great challenge. On the one hand Mayra, Vero, Belén, Cony and Rodrigo taking extra English lessons after school and, on the other hand Krishna was doing his best to help with team members’ writing skills. It is not only a matter of knowing the language but also learning about each other’s culture to understand the feelings, moods and life perspectives.
Personal interests were always present, above all when dividing the tasks, sometimes influenced by their previous experiences or knowledge of special issues. Such as considering that this situation should be known in South America we decided to include a Spanish version of the site for people around us.
Each one has diverse ideas about life but we all agree in one fundamental basis: solidarity.
