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European School Education Platform
eTwinning Kit

eTreeHuggers

The purpose of the project is to look for interesting old trees across Europe and the world such as Adonis in Greece, the oldest European tree, and highlight them as important natural and cultural assets that should be respected and protected. The project focuses on the story of such trees and their connection with people. The first TREEHUGGERS were 294 men and 69 women who died while trying to protect the trees in their village in India from being turned into the raw material for building a palace. They literally clung to the trees, while being attacked by the foresters. However, their action led to a royal decree prohibiting the cutting of trees in any Bishnoi village. Now those villages are wooded oases amidst an otherwise desert landscape. In this project, the pupils will be the eTreeHuggers who will hug their countries’ trees to protect them. Photo credits: rangizzz- stock.adobe.com

Objectives
Objectives
• To increase awareness of interesting trees and the historical and natural heritage that they represent. • To develop an understanding of the importance of the conservation of the environment and the prevention of pollution • To Introduce the concepts of soil, plant, forest together with an exploration of plant species growing around us • To combine Environmental Education with STEM and ICT Tools • To learn how to best organise a campaign to protect existing trees
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Introduction of partners
Introduction of partners
The project begins with each partner school describing their school and the environment around it. They then choose an old tree in their area, region or country and search for interesting stories behind their trees. In the next stage, every class chooses a tree to represent them. The pupils then give names to their trees, do a photoshoot of their chosen trees and present their stories with the photos in the TwinSpace. in the TwinSpace you can also create a table and fill it in with the name of the class, the teachers’ names and the type of tree each class has chosen.
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Orientation
Orientation
Create a resource area in the TwinSpace and upload all educational materials here to be used in the project, links, videos, photos, etc. and to be used as the basis for working with the pupils. The pupils begin by looking around their neighbourhood and the environs of the school to identify trees. They can take photos or design posters and hang them on the trees to describe the tree and protect it from danger. By Incorporating different subjects, the pupils can do any or all the following: Trees and Maths: Find a tree and count how many pupils it takes to hug it. Make measurements of the trees and compare them. Count the rings on old trees to determine their age. Plot the age of old trees on a timeline such as this one using PadletTrees and STEM : Help NASA Measure Trees with your smartphone Trees and the environment : Organise tree planting in the school ground or waste areas Trees and language : You can write a collaborative story such as this one using FLIPHTML5 Trees and Geography : Look for old trees across Europe and the world and plot their location on a mapHug Challenge : Let’s Hug trees as a challenge in the Guinness Book of RecordsRecord : A radio show or podcast about the importance of saving trees Finally, organise a Tree Contest where parents, pupils and the community vote for their favourite old tree in order to participate in the European Tree of the Year contest with the chosen finalist.
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Collaboration
Collaboration
COMMUNICATION Communication among the teachers is essential in a project like this one and regular video meetings have to be built in from the start with a shared space to work and comment on the development of the project. Depending on the age of the pupils involved this communication can be also extended to pupils. The pupils take photos of their environment and chosen trees. These are uploaded in the TwinSpace and each class can either comment directly in the TwinSpace, or a video conference session can take place between classes where the pupils present their work and the other class can ask questions. COLLABORATION In the original eTreeHuggers project, the school teams worked on several collaborative projects. For example, in Europe Code Week, each school created a maze through which a Beebot had to travel in order to save a tree in danger. All the maze designs were published in the TwinSpace and each class could choose another class’s design to work with. Around December, the classes can build an online Advent calendar with each class contributing a section. Working on different aspects of the subjects, the pupils can write/draw/illustrate different pages to be included in an eBook such as this one. Building a collaborative timeline is another activity which can be carried out collaboratively. Depending on the age group of the pupils involved, all these activities can have a high level of collaboration among the pupils by initiating work in international teams.
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Evaluation & Assessment
Evaluation & Assessment
Evaluation was carried out by using an online questionnaire tool such as Microsoft, Google forms or Survey Monkey, and these surveys can be used for aspects of the project with both the teachers and pupils concerned. For example, they can be asked to rate their favourite activity and reflect on what they feel they have learned. Parents can also be surveyed about their response to their child’s involvement in the project. When presenting the result of such evaluations, it is best to write a short summary of the findings, what worked well, what could be improved, etc., rather than just a ‘cut and paste’ of the survey results. Assessment may be carried out in several ways depending on the age group of the pupils involved. For very young pupils in this version of the project the teachers created a worksheet where the pupils had to draw the trees and animals from their surrounding areas. At the end of the project, they created another worksheet and asked them to draw again the trees and animals from their area. This activity could be broadened to include the partner areas or indeed any other part of the world touched upon in the project. The information received should be much richer the second time around. For the older pupils you can ask them to choose their favourite old tree and place at the end of the project and then they can use one of the resources at readwritethink.org to justify their choices.
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Follow up
Follow up
Documentation : All aspects of the project are well documented in the TwinSpace, with separate pages for each month of the project with clearly laid out instructions for each activity planned for each month. For each activity there is a corresponding folder for pupils’ work. Final outcomes are presented on a separate page in the TwinSpace with a clear explanation for each one. There is also a resource page where all resources and links used in the project are posted in an organised table. Finally, all the evaluation and assessment materials are clearly presented in another separate page. Dissemination : This project was entered into a contest for making a radio show on the European School Radio website. This is just one means for dissemination; other ways would be to invite the local press to an information session with parents or inform local radio stations of the work of the pupils.
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Additional information

  • Age from:
    6
  • Age to:
    19
  • Difficulty:
    Easy