SOS Support Our Sustainability

This cross-curricular project aims to give a real scientific context to some of our closest environmental everyday situations as well as to increase the sustainability awareness of our students.
Students are given a real life problem to investigate which can be described as an authentic problem such as becoming aware and learning about their local biodiversity, caring for the environment in their area through nature awareness, advocacy and citizen action, educating young people to respect and protect nature, raising awareness on the biodiversity of their local environment, recycling, advocating for pollution prevention activities and solutions, volunteering and promoting responsibility.

Key points in teaching key competences: application of knowledge in real world situations. Interactive learning environments presenting open-ended problems to be solved through debate, experimentation, exploration and creativity.

Topic skills: promoting students’ awareness of the importance to respect and protect the natural environment where they live through the study of their surrounding natural environment and of sustainable energy sources, being responsible in their lifestyle (respect of nature, healthy lifestyle, etc..).
Teachers and students share information about their schools and closed environment (beaches, forest and city).
Collaborative problem solving (definition of the collaborative project, components identification, resources identification, distribution and division of the resources among the students, goals and topics definition, instructions explanation)
The students will work a session per week in teams at school. Enough information and instructions will be provided to them in case some tasks have to be finished at home.
Our intention is to begin to work this term.
Teachers and students meet, exchange ideas and information, resources, and work, upload their productions, on twinspace and google apps.
Learning environments inside and outside school.
Naturalistic excursions, check the nearby environment and waste.
Try to collaborate with the city council and with other entities like university and research centers (citizen sciences) or voluntary services related with the nature.

Competences/skills: learning to learn, communication in a foreign language, sense of initiative, social and civic competences, digital competence (improvement of students’ use of ICT, responsibility in the use of tools and socials), thinking critically, decision taking, creativity, problem solving, initiative and the constructive management of feelings, interactive classroom discussions.

Project steps
step 1 Getting in touch with the partners and definition of the activities, the steps of the project and of the roles.
Teachers and students share information about their schools.
Collaborative problem solving
Definition of the collaborative project
Identification of elements and components
Identification of the resources for each component
Distribution and division of the resources among the students with no shared ones
Definition of the goals
Explanation of the instructions
Definition of the means to keep a record, a journal of their discussions and decisions.
Creation of a logo for the project
STUDENT CHOICES (Which choices are we giving to students in terms of how they work, how they use their time, the products to be made etc.?)
Shared planning, task-based teamwork, group work at school and at home with roles, use of ICT, time assigned for carrying out tasks and the delivery of the products.
step 2 Definition of the topics
PROJECT ELEMENTS
Breaking down the problem into its various parts
What does being sustainable mean in your territory?
What is the ecological biodiversity in your territory/area as you can study and discover it observing and cataloguing species on the site?
What is the biodiversity of the coasts and beaches in your area?
What is the biodiversity of the pinewoods in your area?
What is the biodiversity of the woods in your area?
What is the biodiversity of the wetlands in your area?
What is the biodiversity of the natural oases in your area?
What is the biodiversity in rivers/streams in your area?
What are the problems related to human impact you have found out and observed during your naturalistic excursion on the site?
Are there any endangered species in our areas?
What are the local institutions/associations/volunteers doing to protect our local natural environments?
Is healthy living and lifestyle related to nature?
Does sustainability be defined as a socio-ecological process aimed at a common ideal?
Would you define moving towards sustainability a social challenge engaging young people?

step 3 Collaboration and sharing on Twinspace.
Teachers and students meet, exchange ideas and information, upload their artifacts, etc.. on Twinspace.
Learning environments: inside and outside school, even virtual
Naturalistic excursions/trips

step 4 Tangible productions:
Creation of shared presentations, videos, infographics, photos, webs, wikis, walls, e-books using web 2.0 tools and google for educations and other VLE (virtual learning environment like moodle).
Make a recycling project in our schools such as a vertical garden with recycling materials and native aromatic plants and native seeds.
We'd like publish and to share the outcomes of our the project on the twinspace, school’s web, GEP school's blog, xtec, green schools virtual magazines, etc.
Moreover, and in a more abstract note, we hope that our students gain in scientific insight and environment awareness, becoming better citizens of the world.
Sharing of materials and artifacts using G suite for education.

step 5 FEEDBACK & REVISION
Task journal
Tutoring
Peer to peer approach in learning and assessment
Self assessment
Formative assessment
Summative assessment
Use of rubrics

step 6 Dissemination and expected results
The work will be presented to the school community, parents included and to other schools in the area, environmental associations in the area.
The tasks will be carried out using the Twinspace to present them to the eTwinning community.
The final aim is to make young and adult people become aware of the importance of biodiversity of our surrounding areas and of ways of living more sustainably.