Wash Your Hands, Please!

Hand Washing Campaign at the American School of Mexico City

The culmination of our Micro Life unit was to create a poster or some other sort of visual presentation to encourage students at our school to wash their hands. This was particularly important since the end of October marks the beginning of flu season. In fact, the United Nations declared an International Hand Washing Day in late October to raise awareness about this simple, yet effective way to prevent the spread of microbes. It is estimated that 80% of infectious disease can be prevented by this simple procedure.

Students worked in teams of three of four to produce a visual presentation that explains the scientific reasons for washing hands. The project was also supposed to give clear guidelines and use images to both attract interest and inform the student body. The children did internet research on the topic, divided up responsibilities and printed out information at home. Then they put all this together in class.

In class at the end of the project, students presented their work and pointed out the elements that they believed attracted people's attention or informed the public. Others in class commented on their efforts. Hopefully, the result of the assignment was to raise student awareness of the need to wash ends, as well as how to best attract the attention of and educate the public.

New Weather Station

After two years of laying the groundwork and installation attempts, a new weather station was erected on top of the middle school building this school year. It was a gift of Weather Services International as part of their international lightning monitoring network. At the very top of the tower is their lightning sensor and a GPS receiver that are connected to a modem that sends the information direct to their offices in Maryland.

In return for hosting their antennae, the American School received a high-tech weather station that monitors temperature, wind speed, rainfall, humidity and other variables. It is really a work in progress as time has limited our ability to learn about how to use all the features that apparatus provides.

Looking across the roof, you can see downtown Mexico City, built on an old lake bed. From the top of the archbishop's palace in 1803, Humboldt also studied the city's skyline. His instruments had survived a 4,000-mile journey through the Americas on muleback, canoe and ship. His accurate measurements of lattitude and longitude corrected the old colonial maps of New Spain. Our up-to-the-date equipment allow us to scan the same horizon the Prussian scientist did in an environment utterly transformed.