Dayspring Mission High School (& Guest.) From Left to Right, Patrick Evans, Elio, Cayetano, Perry Tompkins, Mark, Joseph, Juan, Lawrence, Frank, Badi and Jeff Shelnutt. What a great looking bunch of guys!
In October 2005 I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Belize and teach a "Week O'Science" at a high school run by two missionary, Patrick Evans and Jeff Shelnutt. Talk about God using our natural abilities!!!!
If you look really close you will notice the postage stamp that we are
heading for in the city of Punta Gorda in southern Belize:
Welcome to the big city!
Sky view of the village of San José
Early Morning Mist over San José
The most spoiled dog in the village, Mubi
A Mayan Tomb near the house of our Bus Provider, Feliz, Who are the tomb raiders??
Movies! Movies! Movies! (Don't forget the Popcorn!)
Crazy Buggy Ride down steep hill
See above to remind you of Who's Who:
We had four days of classes. The first day was
Discussion-What is Science?
Discussion-How and why do we tell time?
Shadows of the sun to tell time-Sundials
Determining the height of objects using the length of their shadow
Phases of the moon
Seasons
Using the scientific method to characterize a Simple Pendulum
Rainbow Glasses (diffraction gratings) to look at the components of white light
Day two:
How can an Aircraft Carrier float?
The story of Archimedes
Which things float and which sink?
Archimedes Principle
Spring Scale Calibration
Archimedes principle with Clay
Clay Boat design--how many marbles can float in your boat?
Salt water floats a bead that sinks in regular water
Playing with polymers--Gak
Day three:
Brainstorm about Electricity
Batteries and Bulbs
Schematic diagrams, a secret code.
What is a complete circuit?
Add Batteries for larger objects
Circuit Checker
Conductor verses insulators
Make a switch
Mystery Boxes
Day four:
Parallel and Series Circuits
Light up the World-how it works
LUTW install it, it works!
Science Hangman
Light up the world is a super-cool lighting project that comes from the Light Up the World Foundation at www.lutw.org LUTW is a low-cost extremely efficient lighting system that can be installed as a stand-alone solution to darkness. Our systems consisted of one 5-watt solar panel, one re-chargeable 12-volt battery and two 1.3 Watt 12-LED lamps. If you look at the fourth (blurry) picture you can see one of the lamps that is lit. It gives out an amazing amount of light for only 1.3 Watts. Talk about quantum efficiency! This light is easy to read under without straining your eyes. (I know, I got a chance to use these lamps that we installed in the school-room during my last night in San José.)
Cayetano and Frank risked their lives to get the solar panel mounted on the roof of the school room:
We ran the wires and hooked them up along with a switch for each lamp ourselves:
Some Student's Reports on the LUTW Project:
Elio's, Mark's, Cayetano's & Badi's
We went to the Mayan ruins at Lubaantun as a field trip on Thursday.
Feliz was the bus driver, although he owns the bus and a lot of other vehicles in the area.
Picture Time! I'm showing the cameraman how to take pictures with my strange camera:
Jeff
Patrick
The Guys were assigned to make drawings of the features around the park:
Playing around the cool pyramids:
Mubi suggested that they re-name the park "Mubaantun" since it was still a perfect place for a dog's life!
Pretty Countryside on the Way Home
Beautiful San Antonio Falls: (Careful they wanted to charge $5 to use the
falls)
I spent my last night at the Saint Charles Inn, Punta Gorda. Not too bad, but you might think to get a room with A/C, not because of the temperature, but to help cut down on the bugs {;o}
Downtown "PG"
View of the Caribbean Sea from PG South:
North:
SouthWest:
Goodbye PG!
Goodbye Mayan Mountains!
On the way out of town I collected the email/web addresses of some rental car
agencies that were located at the Belize City Airport. I include these here so I
do not lose them, but if you are ever planning on going and want to rent a car,
here are some leads:
Pancho's Auto Rental Email:
panchosrental@btl.net Website:
www.panchosrentalbelize.com
Crystal Auto Rental Email:
reservations@crystal-belize.com Website:
www.crystal-belize.com
Vista Auto Rentals Email:
info@vistarentalsbelize.com Website:
www.vistarentalsbelize.com
Jabiru Auto Rental Email: jabiru@btl.net
Website: www.jabiruautorental.bz
Also there is: Thrifty, Avis, Hertz and Budget.
God's Speed if you go!
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