Mano Amiga Academy’s Idea Carnival: Solving Real-world Problems with Education that Goes Beyond

The Mano Amiga Academy students showcased their problem solving skills to parents and guests during the Open House: Idea Carnival last April 15. Students transformed their classrooms into different booths that showed problems they identified and the process they went through as a class to find solutions for it. Guests were blown away by the inventiveness and eloquence of the students as they shared their journey with their projects.

The Kinder Joy class exhibited that there’s no such thing as “too young” when solving real-world problems. Throughout the school year, they identified and expressed their anxiety with being separated from their parents. With the guidance of their teacher, a solution they came up with was designing and creating their own teddy bears that would help them enjoy school without feeling homesick.

From solutions to personal problems, Grade 6 students then presented their project entitled “Keepin’ It Cool” where they challenged themselves to find the best solution to lower the temperature of their classroom. They explored different solutions such as placing plants on their windowsills and building DIY coolers to solve their problem, working together as a class to resolve an issue they experience together.

Grade 8 students didn’t limit their perspective to the classroom as they tackled Global Warming for their project “Decrease the Heat, or Increase the Risk”. They organized an information drive with flyers, presentations, and a TED Talk to educate other students and guests about the effect of global warming on the world and what we can do about it.

Each of the eleven classes tackled real-world problems in applying their Project-Based Learning Outputs. Mano Amiga continues to deliver education that goes beyond what is expected. The students showed awareness of their own emotions, empathy for what they experience as a class, and responsibility for what happens in the bigger community they belong to. They showed how they have developed the skills to overcome their personal challenges to come up with creative and innovative solutions to the problems they encounter on a daily basis – inspiring the guests to do the same.