JNHT taking heritage education to new level
April 29, 2010
The Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) is pushing ahead to create new inroads in the promotion of heritage education. The organization has been having discussions with stakeholders in the education sector on one of its new initiatives which aims at creating links between our Jamaican heritage and various subject areas taught in schools. The project is dubbed " The Jamaica National Heritage Trust Presents ... he Ultimate Field Trip Experience".
Executive Director of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust Mrs. Laleta Davis-Mattis, explains that a primary objective of the project is to introduce teachers and parents in particular to the unending world of Jamaica's heritage -both tangible and intangible. "It is about taking heritage education to a new level. We want persons to view heritage as a resource for learning using an interdisciplinary approach".
"Visiting heritage sites is the most effective means of achieving a tangible sense of history and so the JNHT is pushing to incorporate heritage education into new areas of the curricula. This new programme will introduce classroom teachers to ways of using the sites in different subject areas.
At a recent meeting at Headquarters House, the JNHT's main office, Mrs. Davis-Mattis introduced the project to a captive group of educators. The JNHT head, with the use of audio visual material, explained how a field trip to historic Port Royal for example, could be important resource for not just history and social studies teachers, but also geography. "In Port Royal, the students could see physical repercussions of an earthquake; learn about the effect of plate tectonics and tsunamis. They could also compare maps of Port Royal before and after the earthquake and explore the differences in land mass."
She cited various other examples of how field trips to a historic site could be a valuable resource in the teaching of Physics, Mathematics, English Language, Economics, Social Studies and even Biology. For the latter, she pointed out that the JNHT has a significant collection of bones at its headquarters and students could get a lesson on osteology (study of bones) and see the connection between archaeology and the validation of biological information.
The JNHT will be conducting a series of workshops with educators across the island to sensitize them to the project. Out of these workshops, the organization intends to draft template lesson plans on how educators can use various historic sites to teach different subject areas in the school curricula.
For further info contact:
Andrea Braham
922-1297-8/922-3990
