Population Education workshops are happening around the US and Canada all the time. But did you know that Puerto Rico is included among the growing list of workshop locations? We are proud to say that we have several trainers located in Puerto Rico who regularly work with teachers and pre-service students in their areas. Earlier this summer, one of them facilitated a Population Education workshop at El Centro Ambiental Santa Ana (the Santa Ana Nature Center) in Bayamon, PR and the teacher feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

Twenty-two Spanish-speaking teachers came together for the workshop, curious to learn how to integrate population issues into their K-12 teaching. Through activities like Si el mundo fuera una manzana (If the World Was an Apple), Todo esta relacionado (Everything is Connected), La Vida y La Muerte (Life and Death), and Dilemas ambientales (Environmental Dilemmas), educators learned about the history of population growth and current population trends, as well as explored the inter–connectedness of people and the planet. In addition to gaining content knowledge, the teachers appreciated that the lessons exemplified sound teaching strategies. One teacher noted, “the resources were excellent…I liked all the leads to scientific, personal, and critical thinking,” while others praised the cross-curricular nature of the activities. In fact, on the post-workshop evaluation all of the teachers indicated that they will likely use the materials received!

We are glad to be able to support these Spanish-speaking teachers as they work to teach about population pressures, sustainability, and global awareness in their classrooms. Looking for lesson plans in Spanish? We offer two Spanish-English lesson packs – one for elementary grades and one for secondary grades. Both are free to download.