IMAGE GALLERY: Africa United Day Is A Huge Success

teacher, Shannon Barca, shouted with enthusiasm, "What are you going to do?" In unison, the Firefly team responded, "Own it!"

"And what are you going to find?" 

"Passion!"

On the morning of Thursday, April 14, sixth grade students at Mill Pond School welcomed the community to Africa United Day, the culmination of weeks of study about the many countries and people of Africa.

The purpose of Africa United Day, which is funded by the Westborough Education Foundation, is to teach the Mill Pond and Westborough communities about the countries, diversity and issues throughout the continent of Africa. One of the three sixth grade teams at Mill Pond School takes part in this project.

When asked what impressed her the most about her students' work, Barca quickly responded, "The fact that the students truly 'own' their information. They don't just read a section, they discuss important details about their country. I also love the fact that they become passionate about their country."

When listening to the various presentations, it was impressive to hear the students -- fully dressed in their countries' cultural clothing -- talking as though they were a native of their land. You heard a lot of remarks that showed ownership:

• "In my country we don't have a lot of clean water."
• "In my country over 80% of the people live beneath the poverty level."
• "In my country there is a lot of HIV and Aids; people are dying because they don't have good health care like we do in the U.S."

This is the fourth year that Mill Pond School hosted Africa United Day. "It used to be Europe Day, but I felt like it didn't teach the students the valuable life lessons I had intended it to," said Barca, who is the team leader. "I also wanted this project to create awareness about a continent that is little known or understood."

Many of the students had never even heard of their countries before, so the research was eye-opening for them. They were each assigned an influential African person and were asked to take on the role and perspective of that person throughout their African journey.

Every project was a culmination of work in all academic areas. Final presentations included a hand-drawn map (geography), a current issues poster (social studies), a timeline of historical events (social studies), a biome exhibit (art), a field guide (science), economic graphs (math), the nation's flag (social studies), samples of common food, an original folk tale (English Language Arts) and a speech (English Language Arts).

Another aspect of Africa United Day is community service. Students, as well as community members, had the opportunity to contribute to the Connect-Africa Foundation. It took three to four boys to carry the many bags of donated clothes. Plus, there was a Connect-Africa representative on hand selling jewelry, key chains, baskets and bags that were handmade by the people of Africa.

Barca pointed out that, "Last year we collected about $1,800 for Connect-Africa, but this year it looks like we collected a lot more than that."  

The day was capped off with a performance by a music and dance group from West Africa, where students and teachers were encouraged to go up on stage and dance. To sum up the day the African way:

• وكان يوم عظيم! (Arabic: It was a great day!)
• Ya wanafunzi miradi ya kuvutia! (Swahili: The students' projects were impressive!)
• Die kostuums was fantasties! (Afrikaans: The costumes were fantastic!)

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