Carson teacher attends conference in South Korea

During a recent trip to South Korea, Carson High School Advanced Placement teacher Nicole Fagundes said it was extraordinary to find Ansan City Park, considered Las Vegas’ sister city in the community. The themed establishment turns 30 years and posts the iconic “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign in friendship.

Fagundes, along with six other teachers from California, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska and Virginia, served as a delegate in a geography education conference and field study in South Korea in June. The conference in the capital city of Seoul focused on the geopolitics of the Korean Peninsula and territorial and geographical naming issues.

“I spent four days touring there with other AP Human Geography teachers, and we had the opportunity to go to a Buddhist monastery and have lunch with the nuns,” Fagundes said. “We had the opportunity to go to the (Joint Security Area) of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), we went to ancient palaces, we presented at a conference and the conference involved geographic naming.”

Presentations allowed cultural and educational exchanges, and Fagundes said she was particularly excited about one that addressed artificial intelligence and geography.

“It was something I hadn’t thought of the power of AI when kids are using it and what information is coming up,” she said. “We specifically talked about the East Sea, which it depends on what map you look at. On the map of Expedia that I was using to fly over there, it said ‘the Sea of Japan’ instead of ‘the East Sea.’ So we’ve got some naming issues that will be interesting to see.”

Fagundes said the delegates traveled with two historians in minivans and they were assisted with translators to help. A day spent at the DMZ was of special interest, she said, since most Koreans are not allowed to visit the border barrier that divides the peninsula between North Korea and South Korea unless they have special paperwork.

One of the more intriguing academic aspects was to incorporate her students’ research into her presentations, and Fagundes was proud of what they had accomplished and could demonstrate on an international scale.

“It was on comparing Nevada and the similarities we would find with South Korea, so my students researched part of the Korean War that relates to the Nevada battles and they were named the Nevada battles and it was a gamble if they’d keep them,” she said.

She also described some of her cultural observations of the country she would bring back to her students and apply to her units in the classroom, one of her favorite aspects of her travels.

“There’s a pink seat in the metro, for example, that’s for pregnant women,” she said. “I never saw a pregnant woman in that seat because they have a population that’s going down.”

Fagundes has been teaching in Nevada for 21 years between her experience with Carson City and Douglas County school districts. She said her selection among up to thousands of teachers for this trip was an honor.

She learned she was invited to return for an enrichment opportunity in September but unlikely would accept once school starts in August.

But Fagundes encourages her students to make the most of any destination at home or abroad to learn something new.

“Travel!” Fagundes said. “Go to the next town, next state, next country. Go one block or around the globe, but get out and learn from the world we live in. Learning through experience is truly the best education.”