Matthew Peters

Volunteer Peten

LocationCountryCategoriesDate
GuatemalaCentral and Latin America, Education14 Aug 2002

[Image]The Parque Ecologico Nueva Juventud (the New Youth Ecological Park) is a public park owned by the municipal Government of San Adres, Peten, and managed by Matthew Peters, the director of the park. It covers 150 acres and is approximately 1.5km from the San Andres town centre. The park’s lush forest and diverse wildlife make it an excellent area for local schoolchildren and community members alike to visit and learn about the environment.

Our goal and mission are to develop an environmental education program for the 500+ children who live in San Andres, Peten and surrounding communities. This program will involve at least 5 local schools (3 elementary, 1 junior high, and 1 high school). Daily activities will be given in our 150-acre ecological park to small groups of 15-25 students. Our elementary program will focus on environmental awareness, with activities focusing on plants, animals, water, and soils. Our secondary program (junior and high school) will focus on environmental studies and participatory activities in conservation of natural resources. Funds for this project will be used for educators salaries, educational materials, and activity materials for a three year project. Our work is featured on the Eco-Index website.


For up to date information on their work, go to http://www.volunteerpeten.com Read about their latest RSG work http://www.rufford.org/rsg/projects/matthew_peters

News & Updates


Inoky Cameros, our environmental educator, is leading an activity called the web of life, which demonstrated how all things are interrelated.
web of life
We are very pleased with how things have progressed in our first year. We have developed a fully functional system, activities and education centre to provide environmental education to all the schoolchildren of San Andres for the 2003 school year and thereafter.  Our next goal is to implement our system in other communities in the Peten region, and ultimately throughout Guatemala!

Our educational activities divide into three main fields:

  • Environmental awareness
  • Concept building and
  • Values and community action.
Elementary students create their own insects using different materials. Our education centre is the perfect place to do small projects with children and proves very useful during the rainy season!
classroom

Environmental awareness activities are for first and second grade elementary. Our goals for these activities are to introduce young students to the out-of-doors and for them to begin to interact with the natural world.  Major concepts include identifying colours, shapes, sounds, smells and different objects existing in the natural environment. We then try to build skills to identify the differences between the natural world and the man-made world. 

Searching for spiders and insects teaches children to distinguish different types of life
looking for spiders

Concept building takes environmental awareness one step further and begins to teach students how the natural world is organised. Major concepts include identifying the different kingdoms and life and how they are classified, eg trees, insects, birds, and then relationships such as habitat and food chains. 
Students plant, grow and harvest their own crops, prepare their own tree nursery and help to reforest areas in San Andres.
digging
Values and community action are aimed at more advanced students. Concepts such as conservation and contamination are covered, and after each lesson the student gets involved in community projects such as making adobe bricks for stoves, digging the ground for tree nurseries or clearing up trash.

    Tuesday, May 28, 2002


    Our program is running strong and we have already provided classes to over 1,100 students in San Andres. We will begin to provide our second round of activites starting in mid-June. Our ecological park has also improved leaps and bounds and we now have a new water tower, bungalows, chicken coop, and environmental education center. We invite all to come and visit our program anytime during the year and to learn more about our goals and our achievements.

    Tuesday, March 12, 2002


    Our park started the project on February 27. Our weekly program is as scheduled: Monday - Friday we teach morning classes to elementary school children. Tuesdays and Thursdays the local high school participates in activities in the park. And on Monday and Friday the junior high schools do activities. We will be providing activities for 10 diffent school and will have and impact on over 1100 student in San Andres Peten.

    Our project has already sparked an interest in the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Environment of Guatemala. We are now fully sponsered by the two Ministries and participate in their workshops and general planning meeting. Our full time teacher Inoky Cameros Ruiz will be attending most of the workshops and will also participate in a program to train other communities on our environmental education system.

    As for the park, all of our other projects are up and running. They include our small animal projects, our medicinal plant garden, our tree nursery, agricultural area, volunteer program, and our newly created Spanish Language School, which provide income for the families and teachers of San Andres Peten.



    Project Report

    Read the final project report below.

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    Final Report546 KB

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