Boston Public Schools closed today due to -20 degree wind chills. Sounds like the schools need some geothermal heating that Fellows Kristen Cacciatore and Mandy Dillingham researched in Iceland last summer with their Fund for Teachers grant.

These East Boston High teachers spent a week investigating the impact of climate change on Iceland’s society, educational system and natural environment to develop instructional resources that empower students to address climate change and its impacts on Boston.

“We designed our Fund for Teachers fellowship to go to the world’s leader in renewable energy generation. We gained new insight into how best to combat climate change by using renewable energy sources that do not produce carbon dioxide emissions in the place of fossil fuels. Our goal is to use these experiences and new knowledge to develop curricula that empower students to develop new ideas to change current energy practices in our school and community,” wrote Mandy.

The teachers found that Icelanders take pride in their use geothermal energy to heat water used in everything from homes to public swimming pools. After renting a car, the explored Hellisheidi, the second largest geothermal power station in the world (pictured above), hiked the Hengill Volcano and explored Pingvellir, the national park where two tectonic plates meet. They also toured an innovative greenhouse that grows tomatoes using 100% of its energy from geothermal heat.

Back in Boston (although not today) Kristen and Mandy teach a newly-developed curricula that addresses climate change and the use alternate forms of energy to alleviate carbon dioxide emissions that will be delivered to hundreds of students this year alone. They are also incorporating their fellowship learning into climate change activities with the Science Club they co-lead after school. Students are in the process of developing a series of fun, informative, video clips about climate change in our local area, and ways to conserve energy, which will be delivered on school-wide TVs.

“On our fellowship, we learned how a large community was able to vastly reduce its amount of carbon dioxide production by using geothermal heat and how this heat is converted to electricity to significantly improve the quality of life of Icelanders,” said Kristen. “And our adventures in Iceland have inspired our students to try to prevent global warming by changing how the energy they use every day is produced.”

You can learn more about their experiences on the blog they developed and updated daily for faculty, family, and students to follow.

An additional BPS teacher, Alex Pancic (Brighton High) also used his FFT grant to research energy in Iceland. Specifically, Alex enrolled in Reykjavik University’s School of Energy program to learn how Iceland maximizes alternative energy systems and incorporate these solutions, along with photos and interviews, into an Engineering for the 21st Century curriculum.

For an update on Starr’s student impact, click here.

In Limestone County, AL, 82% of the citizens are white. That percentage jumps to 96% when looking at the student body of Ardmore High School where Starr Weems teaches. Fearing her students’ first encounter with racial, cultural and religious diversity would be on the job, in college or not at all, Weems designed a Fund for Teachers grant to study three of the world’s major religions in Jerusalem. Her goal was to create a combined art/foreign language curriculum that introduced her homogenous students to the beauty of diversity and tolerance.

“As the only high school art teacher in the county and the only foreign language teacher at my school, it’s my responsibility to bring the cultures of the world to my students – many of whom will never leave our state. Somehow, I needed to inspire them to learn about the world around them so that they can be prepared to take part in a diverse society. It’s this responsibility that inspired my fellowship,” said Weems.

For one week last June,  the holy city of Jerusalem became her classroom for intercultural studies. After journaling and sketching at the Dome of the Rock and surrounding gardens, she ventured to the Souq al-Qattanin to experience the colorful markets. In the Christian quarter, she followed and documented the Stations of the Cross on the way to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Weems spent an afternoon plein air painting at the Wailing Wall, explored the Western Wall tunnels and toured the Ophel Jerusalem Archaeological Park. She also collaborated with Israeli educators through pre-arranged visits to the Hebrew University High School and witnessed the Holocaust’s impact on art at Yad Vashem. Lastly, she met with Isareli working artists at the Huztot Hayotzer Artists’ Colony before viewing Chagall’s stained glass windows at the Chadassah Medical Center.

Three days after returning home, she boarded a plane to Rochester, NY, where she attended a symposium on the sacred texts of the Abrahamic religions at Nazareth College – also funded by her $5,000 grant.

Finally back in Ardmore, Weems implemented her new art/foreign language curriculum this fall (schedule and budget restraints necessitated the combined class). As part of the curriculum, her students heard from a local Holocaust survivor and experienced the Darkness into Life: Alabama Holocaust Survivors Through Photography and Art exhibit at the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center. After the field trip, students created their own art to reflect on what they witnessed (see below).

“A Hebrew proverb says that children are not vessels to be filled, but candles to be lit. How can a teacher light the fire of curiosity in her students if her own spark has grown dim?” said Weems. “Teaching is rewarding and exciting as no other career, but success comes only when educators take care to stoke the fires of creativity and inspiration. Guarding the spark (as I did with my Fund for Teachers fellowship) is an obligation that protects our longevity and influence as educators.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. saw the function of education as teaching others to think intensively and critically. “Intelligence plus character,” he said, “that is the goal of true education.” In honor of Dr. King’s birthday today, we also celebrate Starr Weems’ work toward building students of intelligence and character for a future of tolerance.

You can learn more about this fellowship and download the resulting new lesson plans from Weems’ blog Art in Jerusalem.