Students in EC, Costa Rica interact
EVANS CITY — Students at Evans City Middle School got a glimpse Monday of school culture from another part of the world.
As part of a school project, fifth- grade English students read “Love That Dog” by Sharon Creech along with students from Cloud Forest School in Monteverde, Costa Rica. The interaction took place via the Internet.
“It's to see how similar kids from all over the world really are, but also how different their culture may be,” said teacher Ezekiel Stroupe. “They may see the perceptions of Americans for them and the perceptions of students from around the world for our kids.”
Stroupe has a personal connection to Cloud Forest School, having taught there for about a month during his junior year at Washington & Jefferson College. There, he met Dan Eisler, who teaches the fourth-grade English class at Cloud Forest.
“They (students) are doing some creative stuff,” Stroupe said.
Students in different groups read their analyses on the book to each other. They had a question-and-answer segment afterward.
The Costa Rican students said they speak English as a second language.
One student who had prior experience with such a culture was 10-year-old Ben Keefer of Zelienople.
Ben previously visited the area of Arenal, Costa Rica, exploring the hot springs, parks and the volcano nearby.
“There was a lot of neat stuff there and it was really pretty,” Ben said. “I learned that they knew a lot of English and Spanish. We don't start learning that (Spanish) until like fifth grade.”
Stroupe said this was the second time Evans City students spoke with the Cloud Forest students using video chat. There will be four more discussions for the project.
