Project
Title: Factories
The human "miracles"
The human "miracles"
Age: 10-12
years old
Participants: 3-4
schools
Overview: Aspects
of the project: local factories, factory as a working place, architecture of
factories, products, procedures, machinery, environmental issues, fantasy
factories (e.g. Charlie & the chocolate factory), history of
factories, films (e.g. Charlie Chaplin-Modern Times), videos, facts about
factories-statistical diagrams
Outcomes:
Students
Collect information about local factories
Acquire knowledge about factories
Understand how factories work
Analyse facts related to factories and environmental issues
Present their findings
Draw a fantastic factory
Write short stories
Create and compare statistical diagrams
Design a new product and package
Create a 3D factory using a digital game
Export videos with their 3D factories
Use language and second language effectively
Evaluate their creations and their partners work
Share their work with the wider school community
Practise collaboration and ICT skills, develop imagination
and critical thinking
Curriculum:
Cross curricular
Topic: Inventions- the human miracles (Greek Students’
Workbook of Environmental Studies)
Subjects: English as a second language, Language, ICT, Art, Science, Environmental education, Maths
Subjects: English as a second language, Language, ICT, Art, Science, Environmental education, Maths
Time planning: 4 months
1st month is for establishing the project:
get to know each other, make groups,
create accounts, choose names and activities.
1st month is for establishing the project:
get to know each other, make groups,
create accounts, choose names and activities.
2nd month: First activity
3rd month: Second activity
4th month: Evaluation and dissemination
Steps:
1st month
- Teachers
communicate and decide which aspects of the topic they prefer to work on.
- Teachers
collaboratively create a list of tasks for the groups of students (e.g.
draw a factory, comment on a film, create a quiz, present local (milk)
factories, create questionnaires, create a digital game, puzzles, make posters about environmental issues
etc.) Students suggest activities to be added on the list.
- Students,
with the help of their teachers, form mixed nationality groups of 6-8 (groups have two students from
each school)
- Members
of each group communicate on Skype and take a name (e.g. Wonkas).
Afterwards the group is given a list of tasks and they choose two
of them.
2nd month
- Students
in mixed groups communicate and work through padlet, titanpad, googledocs,
twiddla, ppt, tricider, vimeo. youtube, moviemaker, minecraft , on one
of the proposed activities (see below)
3rd month
- Students
in mixed groups communicate and work through padlet, titanpad, googledocs,
twiddla, ppt, tricider, vimeo. youtube, moviemaker, minecraft , on a
second of the proposed activities
(see below)
4th month
- Final
product: A blog where all the finished activities will be posted.
- Evaluation
and dissemination
Proposed activities:
1. Collaborative drawing-synchronous or
asynchronous- (TWIDDLA): Students draw collaboratively a factory. They use chat
to decide the product of the factory, materials they need, package needed and
required machinery. The final drawing can be close or far from reality.
Students take a screenshot and upload it on the project's
blog. They can vote (TRICIDER) for the best drawing (if they decide so) as
evaluation. Students can also write comments as peer evaluation.
2. Creative writing activity-synchronous
or asynchronous- (GOOGLE DOCS, TITANPAD): Students in multi-nationality groups
write a mystery short story taking place in a factory. Students upload their
final stories on the project's blog. They can vote (TRICIDER) for the best
story (if they decide so) or write comments as peer evaluation.
3. 3D creation of a factory-synchronous or
asynchronous- (MINECRAFT): Students create in mixed groups a factory using
Minecraft and export a short video (VIMEO) to show the final design. Students
upload their videos on the project's blog. They can vote (TRICIDER) for the
best video (if they decide so).
4. Local milk factories presentation
-asynchronous-(PREZI, PPT, ANIMOTO). Students present their local milk factory:
from caws to factory, pasteurisation, homogenisation, packaging, other milk
products, waste disposal. Each national group presents their factory and a
collective presentation is created. The final product can be presented to each
of the participating schools.
5. Presentations
can be created on any other related topic e.g. history of factories, children
working in factories, factory products of the future, films with factories,
architecture of factories etc. (PREZI, PPT, POWTOON, ANIMOTO, SLIDEDOG).
6. Create quizzes
–asynchronous- students (mixed groups) create quizzes (ONLINE QUIZ CREATOR)
using information they have gathered. Each subgroup attributes with one or two
questions.
7. Body theatre –
students work in national groups and use their bodies to create the impression
of a factory. They exchange videos (MOVIEMAKER) showing their body-factory.
This activity can also be presented to other partners through skype.
8. Posters – activity
for national groups of two- students create posters about environmental issues
related to factories (SMORE) and upload them on the project’s blog (voting
optional). Peers comment on posters.
Final product and dissemination:
All the final products of the group activities (drawings,
short stories, minecraft factories, milk factories presentations, presentations,
posters, videos etc) will be uploaded on the project's blog (TWINSPACE, BLOGGER,
WORDPRESS). The blog can be linked to the participating schools' websites, so
the results of the project will be disseminated in a wider audience. Some
presentations may worth sharing within the schools’ communities.
Evaluation:
Students will comment on the blog's posts as peer evaluation. Groups will be asked to self-evaluate collaboration (effective communication, distribution of tasks, group organisation, keeping time schedule) and their final product/s. Teachers will create a Rubric to assess the impact of collaboration and activities to their students. Teachers will use project evaluation to the individual assessment of their students. Teachers will communicate the results among them as a final evaluation.
Students will comment on the blog's posts as peer evaluation. Groups will be asked to self-evaluate collaboration (effective communication, distribution of tasks, group organisation, keeping time schedule) and their final product/s. Teachers will create a Rubric to assess the impact of collaboration and activities to their students. Teachers will use project evaluation to the individual assessment of their students. Teachers will communicate the results among them as a final evaluation.
