Sea Lab, Marine Science Education Center, New Bedford Public Schools, was the site of a visit by the Cape Verde Minister of Education and Higher Learning Institutions, Ms. Filomena Martins on Thursday, recently. Accompanying, the Minister from Cape Verde were Mr. Angelo Barbosa, Member of the Commission for Settling the Public University of Cape Verde; Mr. Manuel Carvalho, Advisor to the Minister for Higher Learning Affairs; and, Ms. Teresa Lima, Director for Secondary and Technical Learning. This is the second year that Sea Lab has been invited to participate in the Wareham Sister City Project. This unique program sponsors the exchange of students, teachers, and administrators from Cape Verde to the United States as an educational opportunity to share ideas, philosophies and current educational strategies.

Representing the New Bedford Public Schools were Ms. Nancy Feeney, School Committee Member; Mrs. Eileen Kenny, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum; Mr. Arthur Dutra, Principal of Sea Lab; and Simone Bourgeois and Ralph Perry, full time Sea Lab teachers and curriculum developers for the marine science program. Mrs. Maria Abu-Raya, a Sea Lab employee, interpreted in native Creole, for the Sea Lab faculty.

The visit to Sea Lab by Cape Verde education dignitaries focused on the Lab's use of standards based marine science curricula and its application to the daily teaching of core science curricula. The Minister greatly admired the state-of-the art New Bedford facility and was interested in the standard based science lessons taught to all New Bedford Public Schools' grade five students. Ms. Martins also extended an invitation to the Sea Lab staff to visit Cape Verde and act as a conduit to the dissemination of basic science content curriculum. Sea Lab staff would collaborate and develop with Cape Verde teachers a curricula much like that taught at Sea Lab to be used in the Cape Verde Education System. Minister Martins repeatedly expressed her admiration of the lessons available to the New Bedford Public Schools students and felt they were universal in their approach and could easily be applied in Cape Verde schools.

Culminating the visit, the Sea Lab staff gave a stereo microscope to "The students of Cape Verde from the students of New Bedford." Minister Martins was greatly pleased with the gift. This exchange was informative and exciting for both the New Bedford Public School members and the Cape Verde contingent!

This Article originally appeared in the October 27, 2006 issue of The Weekly Compass