Animal Friends in an animal-friendly world

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This project aims to deepen students’ knowledge about the animal kingdom. They become familiar with the most common animals living in their country and they may work on designing an animal-friendly neighbourhood. Throughout the project the students will deepen their knowledge about the physical characteristics, health, feeding and habits of animals. Involved in research, they can become better informed about animal rights and the living condition of animals in their own country. Picture credit: snegok13- stock.adobe.com

Objectives

• To raise students’ awareness of the problems faced by animals in the different countries. • To develop sensitivity to and love of the animal world. • To develop language skills. • To enhance their IT skills. • To improve their collaboration, problem-solving and spirit of enterprise. • To create new friendships with European peers.

Introduction of partners

The first steps are for the teachers and pupils to present themselves and their schools on the TwinSpace. This may be done in many ways, on the forum or the TwinBoard, uploading an avatar/photo or short video of themselves, etc. Then the teachers develop a Kahoot game which all students play in order to learn the rules to follow if they meet an abandoned animal. These rules are useful all through the year, as students will be asked during the project to “do a good deed for an animal in need”. As the project develops, the students are divided into transnational groups and each group can create mind maps, for example with the names of different animals. From this mind map, the students choose the animal they wish to work on as they move through the project.

Orientation

All the partners collaboratively work together on the same tasks and the teachers keep in touch daily by email, in the TwinSpace and by a WhatsApp group. The work may be planned as follows: First semester 1. September: schools and teachers present themselves and their schools in the TwinSpace and organise a logo contest on the theme of the project. Teachers introduce the TwinSpace to the students and teach them how to use its tools for communication and collaboration. 2. October-December: Teachers create a mind map with the names of animals suggested by the students. From this the students vote on the animals they want to include in the project work throughout the year. The table of transnational groups of students is published in the TwinSpace. The students work in their groups, each group on a different animal, searching for all kinds of information including an investigation of the rights and problems of animals in their country. Second Semester 3. January-February: The teachers arrange a visit for the students to a stable, kennels, a centre for animals or other facilities. The students interview an expert, vet or other operator. The visits are recorded and posted on a TwinBoard 4. March-May: The students design their idea of an animal-friendly town, using texts, drawings, videos, posters and other means. They make a documentary to share their ideas. Other suggested activities could include: • Drawing a motto “ANIMAL = FRIEND”, then uploading the photos of the drawings to a TwinBoard. • Organising a competition where students will present in a documentary some good deeds they carried out for animals. The winning schools can get the plaque as “Animal-Friendly Schools” and display the label in the classroom, corridor or outside the school

Collaboration

This whole project is based on excellent communication methods and collaboration. Before the project begins the teachers must work together to prepare before the beginning of the school year – brainstorming ideas, exchanging proposals, developing a school calendar, gathering email addresses, etc. During the work on the project, the partner teachers have to share the responsibilities and tasks by jointly creating TwinSpace pages and coordinating the students’ work in the project. The partner teachers should coordinate the activities of the project forum and need to communicate very frequently through whatever means they choose – TwinSpace, WhatsApp group, etc. – to agree and coordinate the work. The original project took place during school closure for the pandemic so a lot of adjustment had to be made. There are many collaborative activities which may be considered for this project. For example, students can create a joint page and TwinBoard where they present themselves individually or in groups, present their proposals for the project logo in a joint application and vote for the best, using tools like Padlet, or Popplet for mind mapping. To follow on, students can brainstorm ideas about which animals they want to research and vote for, say, a selected ten. Each transnational team chooses one of the ten, which they can then research and write about in a joint e-book using a tool like Storyjumper. Another activity is for the teams to work together to design a town built around the idea of being an animal friendly environment. This activity can be carried out with the involvement of many subject areas – geography, biology, maths, art, etc. A more advanced activity would be to make a video for a joint documentary about the project and all its activities to be published. The final products of the project should fully show the intertwined contribution and collaborative work of students from different partner schools.

Evaluation & Assessment

Evaluation of a project like this can take various approaches. One is to send a targeted survey to both teachers and students to assess what has worked well, what needs to be improved and what has been learned in the project. A separate survey could also be prepared for parents, to capture their opinions on their child’s involvement in the project. From the results on surveys such as these the planning of future projects is made easier. Assessment could be done in the form of a video discussion with the teachers and pupils. Also, teachers are aware when students have mastered Web tools, learned through collaboration, and improved language skills and digital competencies. Visible results could be for example the installation of nesting boxes and bird feeders around the school.

Follow up

A solid approach to the documentation of a project is central to its success and it is advisable in the planning to draw up a detailed month-to-month plan of activities with deadlines. Project activities may be disseminated through the following: • The eTwinning Corner in the lobby of the schools • The school website • eTwinning events in school and local community • A blog, so that all students, teachers and school staff, parents and the general public can see the activities • The TwinSpace, publishing the pages showing the documentation of the entire project from planning to evaluation and all student activities.

Additional information

Age from:

8
Age to:

15
Difficulty:

Intermediate

Animal Friends in an animal-friendly world

Additional information

School subjects

Vocational subjects

Key competences