Scholas Project Updates

With recent world events still fresh in our minds, it is more important than ever for us to continue to challenge ourselves to think, care, and prayerfully answer the call to be stewards of God's love. In fact, one of my takeaways from this week's homily was the request that I "go forth to be the whisper of love   in the world."

Our Scholas yearlong project is all about challenging our beliefs about other places in the world, and learning what it's like to live in developing countries, in order to provide opportunities for sports, arts, or technology to young people.

The first phase of our research was to look at developing countries in comparison to developed countries. Students were asked several follow-up questions using a Google form, which makes it easy to see trends in their answers, and spot places where students are thinking along the same lines. The purpose of this project is to help our students start asking questions - and not accepting information at face value.

Students were asked to look at information related to education, living conditions,

Picture courtesy of Pixabay

and general elements related to population. They were asked what information surprised them...perhaps challenging their ideas about places so far away, but maybe not that different from us. Here are some of the most inspiring responses. Challenge your assumptions; which countries do you think are mentioned here?


How do the people in { } only go the school for 8 years
and still live their daily life?


I was surprised that all of { } has clean water.


I learned that in { } , you go to school for a LONG time


Why is the drinking water source of { } for people is much lower than other countries?


Why do { } and { } have such a low rate of physicians/ 1,000 population?


Why is the school rate so low in some countries?


Why is the life expectancy rate in { } so low?


Why is the life expectancy in { } higher than in the United States?

These are just a few of the answers that show critical thinking, analysis, and an awareness of our world. Next, we will have students choose one developing country to focus on for their projects, and use databases to gather primary source information. Stay tuned for more details, and if you have questions about this project, or want to get more involved, contact Mrs. Cadran at teachtech@stmm.net!