“Through letters we learned a lot about them,’’ said Julia Stern, 9, of Acton. She said “that it’s very, very dif ferent from here. They deal with things that we’d be scared of.’’ As an example, she spoke about one of her Ilobasco friends fending off a wild dog with a rock.
Neil Gordon, chief executive of the Discovery Museums, visited Ilobasco with Acton administrators and teachers last August as they prepared to launch the $120,000 program, which was funded with the help of an $80,000 grant from the American Association of Museums.
He said Ilobasco students attend a seven-room school that employs nine teachers for 500 students. The students attend one of two sessions per day: some go in the morning while the others go in the afternoon. Despite their limited resources, the students are eager to learn.
“They couldn’t have been more enthusiastic,’’ said Gordon.
Prior to the project, Ilobasco’s Caserio Helen School had one computer in a closet. The grant allowed the school to buy several laptops and get wireless Internet access. Both schools got three digital cameras with GPS to document biodiversity, and exchanged information about their natural surroundings.
In the process, the students learned about weather, climate, habitats, and the interrelatedness of their environments. They also exchanged letters and autobiographies, and shared interests and celebrations such as Day of the Dead and Thanksgiving.
“I heard about the grant opportunity and was excited about the chance to do that and incorporate it into the classroom,’’ said Merriam third- and fourth-grade teacher Leah Richardson.
She said that although the lives of Ilobasco children look much different than those in Acton, her students learned that they also have similarities, such as the love of sports, spending time with family, and watching TV.
