Institute of International Education - Cultural Navigators Project

Author: Institute of International Education
Released 27 May 2004

Mobile Trunk Lending Program

The Cultural Navigators Project Mobile Trunk Lending Program provides mobile trunks containing curriculum enrichment materials on Saudi Arabia and Egypt for loan to Houston area teachers. Specifically, these mobile trunks contain instructional activities, artifacts, and a teacher guide that in most cases would be cost prohibitive to teachers and districts. World cultures, geography and history teachers expressed a need for quality materials that bring the theory, already provided by districts, to life. The trunk contents and materials were designed to be aligned with the Texas Education Agency’s curriculum standards: the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). An evaluation form completed by the teachers will assess the program's effectiveness.

Teacher Workshops

In conjunction with the Mobile Trunks Program, teacher workshops are being developed on how to use the trunks in the classroom, and include presentations by experts on the countries represented by the trunk materials. The 6-hour workshops are designed to cover the history, geography, economics, government, citizenship, religion, and culture of each country and region, and will be an added resource for teachers. Each topic serves as a rich vehicle to discuss issues of tolerance and cultural understanding, both internationally and locally. The Cultural Navigators Project fulfills the IIE mission by giving teachers materials and knowledge to encourage cultural understanding among Houston’s most important resources – our children.

Impact

It’s expected that the trunks will reach 25,000 students each school year. In the first 3 months that they have been available, over 5,600 students on 5 campuses have benefited from this hand-on experience. On average, 5 teachers with 5 classes each of 30 students will share the trunks at each school campus on a weekly basis.

We are grateful to the following contributors for their generous donations to the Cultural Navigators Project: Aramco Services, Baker Hughes, Inc., The Brown Foundation, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, The Houston Endowment, Mrs. Eleanor McCollum

All photographs contributed by IIE

Aramco Expats