Global Wizards teaches geography, a subject currently often ignored in elementary schools. Wizards takes children on world adventures, learning how to use maps and find latitudes and longitudes, and what is meant by hemispheres. After this tour, students know about continents and oceans. Then, they take a special look at one particular continent.

Students enroll voluntarily in this after-school enrichment program, and meet one hour per week for eight weeks during fall, winter, and/or spring terms. Older adult volunteers work with 2-4 students in small groups each week, with an Interages staff coordinator providing materials, a brief lesson, and overall facilitation.

The National Geography Standards (Standards) were established in 1994 to serve as benchmarks to teach geography, and Global Wizards uses these standards to develop its curricula. In addition, the curriculum closely aligns with the Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum (VSC), the guidelines utilized for teaching social studies in Montgomery County schools. The commonalities across the Standards, Wizards’ curricula and the VSC demonstrate that elementary students can grasp the fundamental concepts of geography and apply these to their knowledge about the world.

PARTICIPANTS: Global Wizards met at six new elementary schools this year where 110 students in grades 2-4 participated. Nineteen adult volunteers logged 400 hours working with students. Several guests also visited.

ACTIVITIES: The activities for Global Wizards vary from week to week and site to site since children develop their skills at different rates. The program uses games, puzzles and special maps to teach geographic concepts, and allows students to use maps to become familiar with far away countries. Young students are curious and want to know about animals and their habitats and the lives of children in distant lands.

Examples of activities include one that helps students learn the location of a place by pairing two students with geographic coordinates for lines of latitude and longitude. Working with their respective coordinates, students pinpoint the exact location.  A favorite game is Globe Ball, where mentors and students toss a ball printed with a world map and ask geographic questions to the catcher.  The questions become more challenging as student knowledge grows.  Students read about the Silk Route, a trade road that stretched across Asia hundreds of years ago. After discussing trade, imports and exports, students and mentors shift to the present and search their clothing tags for items imported from different countries. Students complete this activity by creating a chart that shows the number of items manufactured in each continent.

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS:  During the summer months, staff mailed information packets to 35 potential public school sites.  In addition, articles in school and community publications helped generate interest in the program.  We were able to offer multiple 8-week sessions at six new schools this year.  Through this outreach process, we solidified our program model, and clarified the roles and responsibilities of the schools, Interages, and the families with participating students.  We also hired a new part-time staff person to coordinate several sites.

A young geographer’s interest and knowledge can expand with books on the subject. For this reason we give each student a Scholastic World Atlas upon completing the first 8-week session. Repeat students continue to receive additional geographic books. The books help build a personal library for young geographers and encourage independent learning.

The Gazette Newspaper featured Global Wizards in a February 2008 issue. 

Since its launching in 2003 with curriculum for one continent, the Global Wizards program has expanded continuously. This year staff created and added materials for the last remaining continents—Oceania and Antarctica—to the curricula, which now offers modules on the entire world.

MAJOR CHALLENGES: Students within and across grade levels 2-4 demonstrate varying abilities and skills. Efforts are made by mentors and Interages staff to engage each student.  While it can be challenging to accommodate everyone, all materials, activities and maps are prepared according to the level of the students’ abilities and understanding.

Global Wizards expanded exponentially this year and we are eager to add more sites. An ongoing challenge is to balance this expansion and interest in the program against our need to fund the program through grants and other income.  In addition, recruiting additional volunteers from the community is an ongoing effort.

EVALUATION METHODOLOGY: Mentors are in a strong position to evaluate specific student strengths and challenges since they each work closely with 2-3 students for eight consecutive weeks. They complete individual evaluation forms for students they support.  These evaluations assign a numerical value (with 1 for minimal and 4 for maximum) to various measures of student learning, including: each student’s ability to understand similarities and differences between maps and globes; knowledge of cardinal directions, latitudes and longitudes; awareness of what constitutes a continent or a country; ability to use a map; and knowledge of the specific continent in regard to climate, natural resources, geographic regions, and land forms. Mentors also comment on each student’s abilities to work with peers, follow directions, and complete tasks.

Students complete a pre- and post-program quiz about basic geography concepts to help capture their improved general geographic knowledge.  Volunteers completed an evaluation of Interages staff, program content, and program logistics at each site. 

SUMMARY OF EVALUATIONS: Across the seven content areas, mentors ranked students as achieving a score of 3.2 (out of 4) on overall learning and ability. These scores were similar across all content areas measured, as well as questions designed to evaluate student/peer cooperation, ability to complete tasks, and to follow directions.  Over 80% of student scores on the basic geography survey improved for those who completed both the pre– and post-program quizzes.  On average, scores increased 18% for those showing improved knowledge.

These scores demonstrate the ability of elementary students to learn and apply core geographic concepts. They can find countries using cardinal directions; they know that individual countries have a latitude-longitude “address”; and they begin to grasp the connections between location and climate, land forms, and culture.

Overall, volunteers were “very satisfied” with the Global Wizards program.  They almost unanimously rated the effectiveness of the Global Wizards staff, program content/materials, and program logistics at the highest level (a 4 on a scale of 1-4 ). 

COMMUNITY IMPACT: Geographic knowledge benefits all and the subject is not of major focus in many schools. We live in a nation whose citizens test poorly on their knowledge of other countries.  A world-wide 2006 Roper National Geographic Survey confirmed that Americans between the ages of 18-24 know very little geography. Unfortunately, the scores mirrored those of several years earlier when the majority of participants were unable to locate Iraq on a world map at a time when news coverage focused on war with that nation.

Because of Global Wizards, there are 110 elementary students who are versed in the fundamental concepts of geography.  Students in Global Wizards come from different backgrounds and they take pride in showing “their country home” on a world map. At the completion of each session, students take home an atlas or other geographic book that can further expand their knowledge of the world. Of course, these books become available for other family members to use and examine.

Adult mentors often comment on how much they learn in each session. They enjoy working with the students, and many who have travelled abroad embrace this opportunity to share artifacts and photographs with the kids and help bring alive the learning.  To live responsibly as citizens of the world, we need to increase our geographic knowledge. A program like Global Wizards helps do just that, while also creating intergenerational relationships.

DIALOGUES ACROSS THE AGES

As its name implies, Dialogues Across the Ages (Dialogues) brings together adult volunteers and high school students for small group discussions of current events, and allows both generations to share ideas, listen and learn from one another. Dialogues has been active in Montgomery County schools for almost twenty years. Throughout these years, the adults have opened doors to countless students and shared their

memories of being young, struggling to meet obligations, and pursuing distant dreams. When students

realize that they share the same concerns, they form a bond and the two generations begin their journey of weekly dialogues.

PARTICIPANTS: Dialogues met at John F. Kennedy High School in fall 2007, with 39 students from the

Leadership Training Institute (LTI), the school’s signature program. In addition, two LTI teachers, the Interages program coordinator and 15 Interages volunteers (who logged 136 hours) participated.   During the spring Dialogues met at Winston Churchill High School, with 11 of the 15 volunteers from the fall contributing 23 hours in meetings with 29 students.  This new school site was supported by one teacher and the Interages program coordinator.

ACTIVITIES: Dialogues sessions typically last for one and a half hours weekly for a total of eight weeks.  (At Churchill High School, we shortened sessions to 45 minutes per week to accommodate the school’s

schedule limitations during this first program year).  Before beginning the group sessions, the Interages staff coordinator presents an orientation session where students learn about the qualities attributed to older adults, life styles that determine longevity, brief biographical information about the volunteers and the format for the weekly meetings. Students also complete a pre- and post-program Aging Awareness questionnaire.

Typically, discussion groups include two adults and –9 students.  However, changes were made this year at Kennedy High School because of lower student enrollment.  Sessions met in two large discussion groups with about 16-18 students and 4-5 adults.

Each week, volunteers rotate and a student moderator leads the structured discussion sessions. Prior to the initial session the students and school select the topics to be discussed. The first session usually begins with a neutral topic such as “Changes in Families and Individual Responsibilities.”  More challenging topics—the war on terrorism, racial equality, reasons for war, steroids and famous personalities, diets and eating disorders, and the responsibility of the media—are tackled during subsequent weeks.

Teachers often observe how the life experiences of the volunteers provide students with alternate avenues for solving problems. Teachers also comment about how openly and without reservations students share their personal experiences, concerns and ideas with the adult volunteers.

MAJOR ACOOMPLISHMENTS: With very little lead time, we successfully added a new site at Winston Churchill High School in the spring of 2008.  Due to the school’s tight classroom schedule, we experimented with a shorter time for each session. Each week’s meeting lasted 45 minutes, and the format utilized small discussion groups of 2 adults and 4-6 students.  Most of our existing Dialogues volunteers agreed to attend these sessions although the school was located in a different area of the County, and the group met at a much earlier morning hour.  This new program worked equally well for adult volunteers and students; the staff, mentors and students gave high marks for the sessions.

Our continual involvement at Kennedy High School for over a dozen years validates the success of Dialogues. Further, the fact that senior high school students actually enjoy meeting older adults on a regular basis deserves recognition.

MAJOR CHALLENGES:  A major challenge is to keep each student engaged and focused. Lively discussions can only occur when everyone comes prepared to share ideas and questions. Some students comment on the lack of participation of their peers.

When shy and quiet students find it difficult to participate, it often becomes the responsibility of the volunteers to draw such students into the discussions. Volunteers need to know how to balance active participation with their role as moderator and encourager. Sensitive topics challenge individual beliefs and life styles. Both generations need to take great care to listen attentively when opposing viewpoints are discussed, a difficult goal to achieve when sharing strong feelings. 

EVALUATION METHODOLOGY: Staff, volunteers and students evaluate the program. The written evaluations capture opinions about the program’s content and structure, as well as allowing participants to make suggestions for future meetings. In addition, the student participants complete an Aging Awareness questionnaire designed to measure their beliefs and views on older people. They complete the questionnaire prior to beginning the Dialogues program, and again at the end of their eight-week participation.

SUMMARY OF EVALUATIONS Student scores on aging awareness questionnaires showed improved understanding and impressions of older adults as a result of participating in Dialogues. Of the 34 students who completed both the pre- and post-program questionnaires, over two-thirds showed increased scores on their post-program responses.

Volunteers rated their satisfaction with the Dialogues program as 1.2 (with 1=very satisfied, 2=satisfied, 3=not satisfied, and 4=very dissatisfied).  Similarly, they felt the program needed little to no improvements—on a scale of 1-3 (with 1=no change needed, 2=yes, a little improvement needed, and 3=yes, needs lots of improvement) their average response was 1.5.

COMMUNITY IMPACT: There are not many opportunities in our community for groups of varying ages to interact with one another for an extended period of time. Dialogues Across the Ages allows students and older adult volunteers to voice their opinions and to help dispel negative stereotypes that both generations may hold. Dialogues is unique because the program continues for eight weeks and gives everyone ample time to get acquainted, explore life styles and interests and tackle controversial issues. Students leave the Dialogues program with fond memories of older adults who offered suggestions, knowledge, and understanding—just to have someone listen makes  this a valuable experience to many.  Similarly, adult volunteers consistently report their very positive impressions of the students they meet.