Educación formal

Quebradillas - On the beaches of this municipality, hermit crabs face a silent dilemma: there are not enough shells to protect their soft bodies. Faced with scarcity, many resort to pieces of trash as shelter. Now, a scientific and community initiative is turning to an unexpected tool to address the crisis: shells made with 3D printers.

Lares - Did you know that vanilla is one of the best-selling products in the world and that Puerto Rico is one of the countries that grows it?

About 20 Puerto Rican farmers joined forces to revive the vanilla industry on the island under an ambitious project established in the Bartolo neighborhood of the town of Castañer, in Lares.

Las Piedras - In a quiet neighborhood of this municipality surrounded by colorful houses, is the Harlequin Butterfly Sanctuary, a sanctuary that captures the attention with the silent fluttering of butterflies fluttering among flowers. Crossing the entrance in recent days, one could observe the summer interns on their last day walking along the main corridor, surrounded by dozens of butterflies and plants climbing the edges of the space.

At just 13 years old, Ana Lucía Pérez Escalera has not yet reached university, but she has already stepped onto the same stage as figures such as Stephen Hawking, Matt Damon, and Buzz Aldrin: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The young Puerto Rican was invited to the MIT AI & Education Summit 2025, held from July 16 to 18, where she gave a talk about her initiatives, which intertwine art and environmental conservation in Puerto Rico. 

From anger over the thousands of deaths associated with Hurricane María and constant fear of another disaster, to sadness, anxiety, and rage over the government’s failures, a study by the organization Amigxs del M.A.R. organization highlighted the adverse impact of the climate crisis on the mental health of Puerto Ricans, finding that more than 50% of over 700 participants reported having suffered some form of trauma due to a climate event.

San Juan, May 20, 2024 - Lorena Pachiardi, a ninth-grade student, created and developed a prototype of a low-cost prosthetic hand on a three-dimensional (3D) printer. The project was carried out as part of the “Seeds of Success” program of the non-profit organization Ciencia Puerto Rico (CienciaPR), which promotes STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education for girls in seventh through ninth grades in public, private and homeschoolers' schools around the island.

The tool is part of an effort led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Caribbean Climate Center

As part of an effort to educate about climate change, the USDA's Caribbean Climate Center developed the "Caribbean Climate Resilience" game, an interactive tool that shows the impact of climate on the region's agricultural industry.