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Take Action for the Future

Project kits

Take Action for the Future

Pollution, of various kinds, is having a significant impact on society and the environment. According to the World Health Organization, some 4.2 million deaths every year are a result of exposure to outdoor air pollution.
water full of plastic bags and factories throwing smoke into the air
Daniel Cole via Alamy Stock Vector

Pollution, of various kinds, is having a significant impact on society and the environment. According to the World Health Organization, some 4.2 million deaths every year are a result of exposure to outdoor air pollution. Ninety-one percent of the world’s population lives in places where air quality exceeds WHO guideline limits. Clearly, something drastic needs to be done about the surge of pollution. And this is just one example. Through this project, students will be educated to make a difference- whether it will be in their own personal lives or as environmental scientists and inventors in the future.

Objectives
Objectives

- To raise awareness of environmental problems - To develop their critical thinking by being able to provide solutions - To become active citizens and make their voices being heard - To organise their work and be able to work in international teams - To learn about pollution by conducting science experiments - To build a strong environmental awareness and consciousness

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Introduction of partners
Introduction of partners

Students will be asked to make a drawing or a comic sketch that showcases the pollution issues in our planet. This picture will be used as a profile picture in the TwinSpace and be accompanied by 3 words which express each student’s feelings. The students in the partner schools have to visit at least 3 profiles and write in 3 words their own feelings about the pictures their peers created. At the end, using a wordcloud tool like AnswerGarden students will create the “Cloud of our feelings for the environment”. In an online meeting, the partner schools will meet and introduce each other and discuss their feelings and fears about the future of the planet. Tools: Answergarden, Adobe Connect

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Orientation
Orientation

The students in all partner schools identify and discuss about the different kinds of pollution: land, air, sea and, also identify the different sources of pollution. Chemistry teachers in collaboration with an environmental organisation could organise an expert talk where students have the opportunity to learn more about the topic and questions. After the informative meetings, they could work in national teams and look at the levels of pollution in their area and quickly research about different actions that the citizens and stakeholders are taking to keep the environment free of pollution. They could then create a short video about their findings, and they could add questions into the video. In that way, the partner schools can play the video and answer the questions to check their understanding. Tools: h5p.org

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Collaboration
Collaboration

COMMUNICATION: The students should be divided in 3 or more international teams (depending on the number of students): Teams should be named after pollution topic areas like: the land team, the air team and the sea team. Each team will work on different activities nationally and internationally. Each team should: • Review vocabulary terms dealing with their topic (Geography and Chemistry teachers) • Collect informative material (Language teachers) • Invite experts and visit organisations dealing with the topic • Make experiments to understand better the type of pollution they are dealing with e.g create an oil spill simulator, run tests on biodegradability, polluted display jars, watering plants with mock “Acid Rain”, water pollution detection experiment etc (Chemistry and Physics teacher) • Make a list of actions that the community can implement to keep the environment free of pollution (Physics and Chemistry teacher) • Agree on specific activities and campaigns that students can organise locally or internationally (involvement of different subject teachers and the Headteacher). COLLABORATION: The international teams could work on the above activities and organise meetings to present their results to the other teams. All teams can work on creating: • infosheets with their main findings about their type of pollution (Science, Art and ICT teachers) • short informative videos to teach the audience about the importance of the issue in all partner languages (Language and ICT teachers) • posters with easy steps that every student can do to help to have a pollution free sea, air or land (Science, Art, Language and ICT teachers) • an online book with all their outcomes (ICT and Language teachers) All teams can also work collaboratively to write a collaborative story on a topic like: “Can you imagine Earth with no clean air, water and soil?”. Every student has to add at least one sentence to the story. The story can then be transformed to a comic book. (Language teachers) All teams can create a board game like ‘snakes and ladders” that younger students can play to understand about the different types of pollution and what they have to do. (Art teachers) For Environment’s Day, on the 5th of June, the partner schools can organise an event in their school where they will invite local authorities, parents and environmental organisations. For the organisation of this, they can also involve other classes. During this event, the schools can connect online and share their work, they can have a display all of their posters they created, they can organise sessions to play the board games with other students and host small debates on the topic. They can close the event with one action: cleaning a nearby beach or a park or organise a bike parade holding the different posters etc. Tools: Writing Words, Genially, Easel.ly, Voki, Vocaroo, Storyjumper.

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Evaluation & Assessment
Evaluation & Assessment

Students can evaluate their work at different stages of the project. Working in international teams and presenting from time to time their work to the other teams will give them the feedback they need to continue their work. After the big event on the 5th of June, they can ask for feedback from different participants. This feedback will also help them understand if they achieved their objectives. Teachers can also send an evaluation survey to get students feedback. Students can be asked to give their feedback 3 months later and write down what things they have changed in their everyday life after the project e.g. use the metro more or they take their bike. Tools: Polleverywhere, Tricider, Padlet

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Follow up
Follow up

Documentation: The plan of the project must be visible on a page of the TwinSpace. Pages of the TwinSpace must show the objectives of the activities and the different tasks asked of the students. Dissemination: The dissemination of the work can be done in the different stages of the project as students can showcase all their work in the TwinSpace and on their school website. For the preparation of the event on Environment’s Day, they can involve the school community by informing first other classes about the activities they want to plan and explain the reasons behind it. Working with other environmental organisations could offer them the opportunity to also disseminate their work by asking students to write an article in a newsletter or the website of the organisation. By organising an action like the one referred to earlier e.g. cleaning the beach, it can help them disseminate their work to the municipality and can encourage the collaboration between the school and the local authorities. Local authorities can provide the publicity, offer them material they will need, involve more citizens etc.

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Additional information

  • Age from:
    14
  • Age to:
    16
  • Difficulty:
    Intermediate