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Ghana Ambassador Club Curriculum Makes the Grade

"We have noticed a dramatic improvement in the program this year," says Dr. Mary Phillips, a teacher from Waco, Texas. "The Ghana Ambassador Club curriculum has helped raise our level of awareness and knowledge about other countries and helped the students zero in on different subjects."

Dr. Phillips teaches environmental studies and the gifted and talented program at Lake Waco K-12 Montessori School. This is the second year Phillips has been involved with NGA's program. The Ambassador Club curriculum is helping her students connect with the world outside their classroom.

First, second, and third grade students in Phillip's Environmental Studies class are using the Ghana curriculum to explore environmental issues and cultural differences. NGA's program materials and curriculum activities guide the students' explorations into Ghanaian culture, climate, art, music, geography, environment, agriculture, language, and people.

The Ghana curriculum is woven into Phillip's environmental studies so her students learn how different climates and geographies affect biomes in individual countries. An introduction to this section of her environmental curriculum included having students study a floor-size continent map to find out where the equator divides Africa. Her students identified the different biomes on the continent, created a color-coded biome puzzle, and then examined the relationships between continental biomes and various climate zones in Ghana.

"First we look at the big picture and then we take an up-close look at Ghana. My students are more prepared to focus in when they have an idea of the whole picture," notes Phillips. She is using all available information to teach her students how things are inter-connected.

The first assignment given to the multilevel class was to compile and present research on Ghana, from A to Z. Each student wrote a short informational section beginning with each letter of the alphabet. For example, F was for Fufu which is a kind of food eaten in Ghana, and N was for Natamas which are blouses or kabas. Learn all the ABCs of Ghana by reading "Ghana from A to Z."

"We are integrating all disciplines into the project," Phillips explains. "The students had to research each letter topic and use many sources of information. They went to the library to look up Ghana-related subjects, used the Internet, and learned geography and climate from a CD- Rom program."

Phillips decided to feature the students' learning in her PTA presentation. "I can't tell you how proud we all were of our first, second, and third graders," she recalls. The students presented the A to Z information on Ghana while wearing Kente cloth sashes they made from recycled file folders. The students researched the historical significance of Kente cloth and the meanings of its symbols and colors. They cut out the shapes from recycled file folders, colored them, and wore them as ornamental art for their PTA presentation. (For more on Kente art, visit Akan Kente Cloths.)

"Each student gave their Ghana speech with such self-confidence and enthusiasm," says Phillips. "The students taught the audience Ghanaian songs and dances, and by the end of the evening everybody was singing and dancing. The Ghana presentation was a huge success."

The Ambassador Club program, explains Phillips, has contributed to the "considerable rate of growth" in her students' understanding of development and agricultural issues in other countries. Lake Waco Montessori is working with the local branch of the World Hunger Relief organization to have an intern from Ghana come to the school and work with the students in their new outdoor classroom. "We have dedicated our own outdoor laboratory, 'The Green Classroom,' to providing extensive hands-on opportunities for our students to learn about growing things," says Phillips.

Her students will then share information on gardening techniques and indigenous plant life, as well as environmental concerns and cultural traditions, with students worldwide.

Phillips and the Lake Waco School are great examples of how global connections help expand our horizons. The teachers, students, and community are learning that the environmental concerns and cultural traditions of Ghana are not unlike our own.