Factories-the human "miracles" Project Plan

Project Title: Factories
 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

Time planning: 4 months
1^st month is for establishing the project:
get to know each other, make groups,
create accounts, choose names and activities.

2^nd month: First activity

3^rd month: Second activity

4^th month: Evaluation and dissemination

Steps:

1^st 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. 

2^nd 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)

3^rd 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)

4^th 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.