Steps to improve the environment
This month we are presenting an interdisciplinary project on an environmental topic coordinated by Mari Carmen García, from the IES Puerta de Pechina school (Almería), in collaboration with schools in Portugal, Cyprus, Finland, Lithuania, Rumania and the United Kingdom.
The project which was recently awarded a national quality label, has as its fundamental objective to encourage initiatives which contribute to raising ecological awareness among the students, helping them to appreciate their natural heritage and to identify similarites and differences in the natural environment among the different European countries. We would like to emphasize the implication of different subjects in the project: Natural Sciences, Technology, English, Computer Science, Arts and Crafts, Spanish Language and Literature, etc., even the hour for tutorials has had its role in the project to draw up an environmental questionnaire and approach the topic of ecological food. This interdisciplinary nature of the project has demanded a great deal of coordination and collaboration among the participants, based on successful work dynamics and has favoured a well balanced participation, team work and the exchange of documentation among those taking part.
Thanks to its nature, the project has been efficiently integrated into the curriculum and is related to other existing initiatives currently being undertaken in Spanish schools (for example, an ARCE school group). The working methodology has been developed fundamentally through the assignment of tasks (assessments, questionnaires, measurements, etc.) with the aim of involving the students and making them responsible for developing an active attitude to learning in each of the project phases.
The project has enabled the students to use specific tools like portable sensors, sat navs and synchronized cameras for measuring and comparing CO2 levels in the different participating countries. The forum, chat on the TwinSpace, Skype and Ning network have been comprehensively used as supports for interaction, debate and exchange of documentation, so that each participant has been able to carry out the different analyses with the measurements sent by students from other schools. To present and disseminate the results they have used Google Earth, text editors, presentation software, videos, TwinSpace, the Ning network and the Moodle platform. The exchanges and visits among the schools have also contributed to a great extent to the sharing of impressions among the students of different nationalities and to the creation of common presentations.
In general, it seems that both teachers and students are satisfied with the results and have actively participated in developing proposals for sustainable development. Raising awareness and promoting attitudes and habits which respect the environment starting from school is, without doubt, a firm step on the road towards the complete education of future European citizens.
Consult the project: TwinSpace
Image source: the "Steps to improve the environment" project.
