We started this morning with another fantastic breakfast at the Colony Hotel in Haifa and then packed and said good bye to Haifa, heading first to Nazareth. In Nazareth we visited the Roman Catholic Church at the site of the Annunciation where the Angel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she was to bear a son Jesus. This was a multi-layered building with the grotto where the Annunciation took place on the lower level and then a Catholic Church built on the level above. This was a huge church with mosaics from around the world with different country’s images of the Annunciation.
From Nazareth we traveled east toward the Sea of Galilee to visit the Safir site where water is pumped from 214 meters below sea level (the level of the Sea of Galilee) to provide water not only to the southern parts of Israel but also to its neighbors to whom it sells water. This was a huge pumping station built over 50 years ago. One problem that the constructing engineers had to overcome was a large valley near the pumping station. To overcome this valley, they built an inverted siphon where the water first flowed down 150 meters and then using that force flowed back up the other side of the valley, just short of the same 150 meters.
After a great local lunch (Falafel was fantastic!) we traveled north, first to Tel-Hai college where the college is helping local teachers in six schools with strategies to help students in Project Based Learning. The teachers presented their ideas and one student presented his project to us. Then we had an open dialogue where we discussed the various ways to do projects (both inductive and deductive) as well as ways for students to present their findings. There was a good discussion and I think that both groups got something from the discussion.
From the college we traveled further north to the town of Metullah which is right on the Israel – Lebanon border. This has been the site of many conflicts over the years do the proximity of neighboring towns. The Lebanon border lies just past the town of Metullah. We will be continuing to discuss this proximity and the conflicts that arise over the coming days.
From this vantage point we could also see the northern end of what to the south will become the East African Rift Zone. Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea lie in this depression. This is something that will also be discussed during the next few days as this is a very active geologic area and being a geologist of great interest to me.
Finally, one of the great benefits of a study trip like this is meeting other teachers and participants and going through a learning experience with them. We had our dinner tonight at Decks which was on the western bank of the Sea of Galilee. We had an amazing dinner but the contacts and relationships that develop during an experience like this can be so very beneficial in the years ahead.
Tomorrow on for Day 4!