FACTORTIERRA

By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo   TAMBOGRANDE, Peru – The Miraflores Alto’s 15220 elementary school is fighting the low reading learning levels through a radio show released via streaming. But the different thing in the Project is that the students research, write, and produce. So, they promote the critic and creative thinking and through the format they have named Capsulitas de Opinión (Opinion Little Capsules).   The Project was developed in 2019 and it is one of the 50 best selected across the nation by the Development for the Peruvian Education Fund, or Fondep as in Spanish, as part of its Transforming Ideas call.   “The proposal and the strategy of my project responses to perform radio shows that allow the students to make scripts about interesting topics for the people, and generate an opinion trend by developing the critic and creative understanding,” the teacher Freddy Juárez García explains. He is the principal and only teacher of the school, unders...

By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo “The teachers  must remember they’re educating for life,” Proffessor María Elena Gracia underlines. She is a specialist in training, study plan design, and educational management with the Technological University of Chile’s INACAP. “And educating for life means to teach our students to solve practical problems and prepare them for continuing to learn,” she explains. The master-ddegree proffessor and graduated teacher on Castilian Language at reputated universities in the South-American country speaks firmly on her conceptions but tender on her directions, an attitude that catches the attention of her colleagues instantaneously. Mrs Gracia was in Sullana, Peru, holding a conference in November 18 th and workshops in Piura, Peru, between November 20 th to 23 rd mainly addressed to teachers and Education students with the purpose of exploring the benefits of critic and creative thinking in the classroom. “Our challenge as teachers...

Adding an orchard improves  feeding and learning  of boys and girls in two schools of Piura.  Piura, Peru - Vegetables for breakfast, and school breakfast also. That don't excite around many boys and girls but that ingestion could balance the first meal of the day what is traditionally formed by carbohydrates and some protein. At 20136 School in Bernal ( Sechura ), 17 students have vegetables  as a complement to the breakfast provided by Qali Warma (Strong Child in English) programme, administered by the Peru's Ministry of Social Development and Inclusion (MIDIS as in Spanish). In Piura D epartment, the programme covers 281668 cboys and girls at 4067 public schools. Qali Warma breakfast are usually formed by milky products or oat plus some portion of carbohydrate as bread or egg in the best case.  It is not enough so enriching it can follow depending on government relief, or an extra effort  of parents and school despite. That's why in Bernal...

A school in Piura highlands celebrates learning achievements, but what about the rest of the region? Cambiar a español Photo by Qali Warma . HUANCABAMBA , Peru - As FACTORTIERRA told it, one of the successful cases inside Piura Region about  a school optimizing a feeding government programme is 14408 Virgen de las Mercedes, which parents and teachers incorporated a plan of hygiene good practices and solid residue management.  But, what about achievements in learning terms? According to Qali Warma Programme, only in reading comprehension, the progress is almost 30% during the last three years. In 2014, 54.3% of evaluated 2nd-grade students understood the texts they red. Now in 2017, from 73 evaluated 2nd-grade students, 60 (82.2%) understand what they read. Additionally, 51 students (69.9%) are capable to reason and to use strategies for solving Maths problems. FACTORTIERRA contacted local Education authorities  to obtain annual statistics, so analyzing adv...

Why is good the students know how speaking to a computer.   By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo . Photos Courtesy by Iván Rotta Saavedra .   SULLANA, Peru – The first time I sat down in front of a computer was in 1986. Actually, it was in front of some Atari or Commodore keyboard plugged to a 14-inch white-&-black TV during a vacation class. It was the time when Michael Knight spent speaking with a Pontiac car’s computer in an emblematic TV series, apparently science-fiction that time. Today, many time later, I speak to my smartphone ’s computer when I need verified answers about specific topics which I even write this article. We are not talking about artificial intelligence only. Before it, the process to manage orders and have results have to do with programming the device for it gives me a product or result. In a free etimology , programming means writing or outlining with anticipation, and amid the computation world, it means setting up a set of orders a...

A rural school highlights in science, looks for stopping deforestation.   By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo . Photographs Courttesy Luis Cevallos Jiménez .   This place is 3½ hours from Piura City going up to the east.   CANCHAQUÉ, Peru – Maybe, it’s the last primal dry forest patch in Buitré Mount. Teacher Luis Cevallos Jiménez thinks it’s about 74 acres. According to Soc’cha Alta elders, it was larger, still. Among chamelicos, guayacans, and hualtacos, it was detected anteaters, armadillos, deers , ocelots, peccaries, Barnett's  lanceheads, and blacktail cribos. Soc’cha Alta is a village of Canchaqué District , Huancabamba Province , extending on a slope going from 2756 to2887 feet altitude. It’s part of Bigoté Sub-Basin, a Piura River ’s tributary, and according to Mr Cevallos, it should be declared a protected area once it’s studied scientifically. The also principal of 15458 elementary school, where other two colleagues work and 33 children stu...