Resiliency through Innovation in Education: Using STEM to Build Resilient Communities

When category 4 Hurricane Maria impacted Puerto Rico on September 20^th 2017, the education school system was totally disrupted. There was a total collapse on communications and electrical service. The hurricane damaged, partially or totally, more than 1,500 schools and affected more than a million children, which had devastating effects on children’s education. The EcoExploratorio: Science Museum of PR received two grants from foundations to develop the first K-12^th School Disaster Education Resiliency program in Puerto Rico, in ten municipalities that had the most catastrophic damages. In collaboration with different scientists and organizations, and using Hurricane Maria’s experience, the EcoExploratorio designed and implemented a comprehensive educational that included program project-based learning lessons on disaster-related topics, provided CERT (Community Emergency Response TEAMS) trainings, installed weather stations, promoted teacher certification as KP4, developed a science education exhibition “Huellas de Puerto Rico” on disaster mitigation and combined it with humanitarian help. The museum has become a "hub" for natural disaster education and a cross-communication platform between scientists, community leaders, educators with the general community. In face of the tough challenges, local interdisciplinary collaborations helped to prompt innovative projects to build resilient communities.