Teaching children who live on a small island about a continent as large as Africa isn't easy. Africa is more than 16,000 times bigger than the 729 square miles of Maui. This was the dilemma for Alisha Jensen, the teacher in charge of social studies in fifth through eighth grades at the Maui Adventist School.

"When I picked up the book to teach them about Africa, I knew I needed to find a creative way to get the students engaged in the material about a continent full of culture, spirit and turmoil," said Jensen. She remembered her own schooling, when sometimes "learning" was nothing more than taking turns reading aloud, one paragraph after another. How much better it was when she learned about Egypt by mummifying her Barbie doll and building a cardboard sarcophagus. She still remembers how her sixth grade teacher taught her about writing and speaking skills through project-based learning. She also recalled one of her favorite events, the Festival of Nations, at La Sierra University. Jensen felt she owed it to her students to inspire them to learn more about other cultures and the need for mission service — and thus was born the idea of holding an "African Fair" in Maui.

Jensen presented the idea to her students. "They became motivated and self directed," she said. "They took control of the learning and did more work than I would have ever asked of them. I feel it helped them to want to become life-long learners about the world around them."

The classroom divided into four groups with each assigned to a different region. Jensen decided that the fair could be a golden opportunity for her students to include the 27 students in the lower grade classroom next door. They would be thrilled to attend a fair put on by the "upper graders," and, of course, the most effective way to learn is to teach.

On the day of the fair there was an Egyptian art gallery and coloring center; African music; a game center about geography and flags; stories about African animals and Nelson Mandela; fresh fruit smoothies bought with "African" money; and an African game called Cobra. "The African fair was a very fun experience, because we got to do different activities instead of just reading from the textbook," said Deanna, a student.

Jensen had mission awareness as one of her main goals. Therefore, she asked a sixth grade student, German, to be in charge of an ADRA booth. Not only did he explain the program to all of the students using some mission video clips, but he also decided to collect donations to help Namibia with its dirty water crisis.

"From this fair I learned so much about the people and places in Africa," said Marina, who donated $10. "I donated to the ADRA booth as well as other people. It felt good to help the people in Africa. I think that people should always give money to people in need."

"Student-centered learning is so thrilling," said Jensen. "I will want to continue to use projects to help students succeed."

"The African Fair was very exciting," said a student. "It was also a good learning environment, because kids like to have fun in learning."