Like all living things, humans are "open systems." We're part of - not separate from - our environment, and we continually exchange materials, energy and information with it. What happens when we eat a piece of fruit, for instance? First, we use our senses (taste, smell, sight, touch, hearing) to gather information (Is it ripe?). Then, the fruit's material compounds enter our bodies. As we digest the fruit and break down and absorb its nutrients, energy accumulated from photosynthesis is released. We use this energy to burn carbohydrates through a process called cellular respiration.

"We are mostly water." True or false? Strange as it may seem, it's true! Our bodies are 75 percent water. In fact, some animals such as jellyfish are up to 99 percent water - about the same amount as a human embryo! All living things need at least some water, and all also return water to the environment. We renew ourselves constantly through water; if we didn't, we would die.

A healthy environment is made up of many elements that are indispensable for our physical and spiritual health, our cultural wellbeing, and our happiness. Among these are, of course, breatheable air, drinkable water, and enough food to feed the community all of which can become contaminated. A healthy environment also includes factors that we don't often think about.

This note provides a brief explanation of the basic concepts related to disaster risk management. The primary threats and conditions of vulnerability to disasters will be detailed, with a focus on six selected countries: Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.

This chapter contains information, criteria, and ideas compiled during direct interactions with public officials working in the fields of education and school building in Argentina, Barbados, the City of Bogotá, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, and the Province of Buenos Aires. It also includes the results of the author's own observations made during visits to a large number of educational institutions in those countries and from reading official technical and strategic documents available on the subject.

As a general rule, regional educational systems have dissimilar school building patters, with manu dating back to the 19th, or buildings that have responded to various architectural, pedagogical, as well as political currents and that have been adapted more or less successfully to today's requirements. At the same time, investment in recent years has favored the emergence of modern buildings with greater comfort levels, better suited to changes in teaching and learning processes, including the use of technology and computing, accessibility, and community participation.

The study of comfort levels considers the factors that affect the balance between the body and its environment in buildings in order to ensure that these living spaces -in this case, classrooms- fall within what are referred to as "comfort zones", or in some cases, "life zones". There is a need to provide a suitable design that can provide the parameters and elements with which to generate concrete solutions.

Several Caribbean countries are now considering the use of PPPs to modernize their infrastructure and improve the delivery of public services, with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago currently providing the most advanced examples in terms of the institutional arrangements that have been put in place (PPIAF 2014). Trinidad and Tobago is currently undertaking preliminary detailed analysis to determine the potential value for money of two pilot projects involving, among other things, the PPP-based procurement of 10 early-childhoods education centers and 10 primary schools.

The objective of this chapter is to provide the tools needed to support the governments of Latin American countries in assessing potential operations and opportunities that can be carried out as PPPs, a mechanism which facilitates the development of these countries by promoting the participation of the private sector in the provision and funding for infrastructures, facilities, and educational sector services.

This series of notes summarizes work performed by the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean under the Project on Learning in Twenty-First Century Schools, a Technical Cooperation on Regional Public Goods funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The project's main aim was to study, jointly with the countries of the region, the states and challenges of schools infrastructure, to suggest solutions, and to encourage the adoption of subregional building standards.