Name
Revitalisation of a river
Topic
Responsibility for Nature
Learning time
2 hours and 30 minutes
Designed time
7 hours and 30 minutes
Size of class
20
Description
Nowadays a lot of nature and rivers are polluted. That's why we think that students should get aware of their responsibility for nature. The project is a collaboration between scool and community: A group of students is asked to revitalisize a river in a nearby village. They have to find out how this is done. Before that they have theoratical workshops where they learn about habitat of plants and how to work when habitats have been lost. The next step is to visit the area and to do different activities there (e.g. plant shrubbery).
Aims
- increase awareness for the importance of nature - find out what happens when previous generations disturbed those very importants habitats - social skills - group work - collaboration with the council of a community - collaboration with the scool of education (university) - presentation of the results
Outcomes
Application
Editor
e.brueggl@tsn.at
Edit
Introduction
160 minutes)
  • Discuss
    10
    20
    0
    The teacher informs the class about the project. A general discussion about the importance of nature and environmental pollution is started. Then groups of 5 people each are formed. The groups get tasks, which they have to work on over a weeks' time, to be able to present their findings afterwards.
  • Investigate
    30
    5
    0
    The initial situation for the group work is a practical case in Germany: A region was overflooded and during a night dams broke. Afterwards millions of liters of water flow into the land. The investigation-process is split into 4 sections: 1) "Think-Pair-Share-Lesson": First step = personal brainstorming Second step = Pair-work (1 group of 3) Third step = group-work (5) Aim: Find out the reasons for flood and they should develop ideas to avoid such situation in the future. The ideas should be presented in front of the whole class.
  • Produce
    50
    5
    0
    2) "Pracital solutions": Students should proove which materials are the best for their solutions. They should use Plasicine, gypsum, styrofoam or PE-foam to simulate and modellise their ideas.
  • Discuss
    30
    20
    0
    3) "Comparison of solutions": The models produced in former steps are compaired and a general discussion about the practicability in the local situation is made (talk about the advantages and disadvantages).
  • Read Watch Listen
    40
    20
    0
    4) "Effects": Discussion aboutthe effects on amphibians, other aquatic organisms and the developments of ecosystems. Input for the discussion: Students get an example of a positiv project in real-life in a well-known habitat (newspaper article).
Notes:
Resources linked: 0
Working phase
240 minutes)
  • Practice
    240
    20
    0
    For one day the students work practically on the special eco-system. Aim: We want the students to see the importance of this project for this village - community is depends on nature. Organisation of the day: The community supports students and provides public transport, food and the plants which they need. Tasks: Students should measure the length of the area for revitalisation (on both sides of the river). Furthermore they have to think about the number of plants they need. And third they should plant bushes.
Notes:
Resources linked: 0
Presentation
50 minutes)
  • Discuss
    50
    20
    0
    For the final presentation we invite members of the council of the community and interested teachers of the school. In the final stage of the project, students present their group work, as described in the introduction phase. Each group gets about 5-7 minutes to present and a short phase of evaluation afterwards. A final discussion can be done at the end - especially discussing further ideas for cooperations and/or financial support. If considered useful and practical follow-up lessons or another project are possible.
Notes:
Resources linked: 0

Learning Experience

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Social learning graph will not display correctly, because one or more learning types do not have group size set.