MAKE community member, author, kit builder, educator, and all around swell guy Rick Schertle has been sharing his knowledge with us for years. On the pages of MAKE, he’s taught us how to make High-Pressure Foam Rockets, a Folding-Wing Glider, the Catapult Glider Launcher, and Compressed Air Rockets. He’s hosted workshops at Maker Faires teaching scores of kids, and his day job is being a full-time middle school teacher.
For the past three years, he and his family — wife Angie, daughter Kelly, and son Micah — have taken trips to Honduras to help out doing community development. This year, they will be helping to host a science/art camp in Nicaragua. There are three other families, the Changs, Heerens, and Trabecks, who will be joining them for the first time, a total of eight kids and eight adults. Rick says, “I’m confident in saying this could very well be the first science/art camp ever put on in Nicaragua.” We salute the Schertles for embarking on these adventures that spread the joy of making. We wish them luck and are looking forward to a trip report upon their return. To learn more and to help out, head to Rick’s blog. Here’s an excerpt:
In June, our family is heading off to Nicaragua to bring some making and science fun to about 200 kids in the small town of San Juan de Oriente. We’ll be joining three other families for a week-long camp made up of of classes and activities science and engineering related. We’ll of course have lots of things that fly (rockets and airplanes) and also classes on circuits, wind and solar power, air pressure, and color and light… all the stuff we love.. This trip combines our passions for science/making and traveling in Latin America all in one!
While we’ve been to Honduras a number of times, we’re excited to experience a new Central American country. San Juan de Oriente is a dusty little town about an hour outside of Managua. Most of the kids in this extremely poor town would never have the opportunity to experience a camp like this. We’ll be partnering with La Vida Education, an awesome one of a kind lending library. La Vida has grown to be a well know organization and is now the biggest library of its kind in the country. This camp fits with La Vida’s educational vision and their staff will help out during the week.
Pictured below are the Schertles — (from left to right) Kelly, Micah, Angie, and Rick — as well as pictures from their previous trips to Honduras.
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