Author: Özlem Kahraman

During the 2020 STEM Discovery Campaign, when we were in our homes because of the Covid-19 outbreak, we discover the biodiversity around us. In this activity, our students researched the species living in İğneada Longoz Forests in our region (Marmara region, Turkey). With the research results, we prepared a virtual tour to İğneada Longoz Forests using Thinglink.

The world is changing faster than ever before, natural beings are running out. The pressure created by the increasing population and uncontrollable consumption desire causes the unsustainable consumption of natural assets. And it endangers the future of our species and our planet.

There are more than 1.7 million identified plant and animal species in the world. Unfortunately, the number of these species has begun to decline in the past century at an unprecedented rate. Since 1970, 30% of the known species in the world have been destroyed.

Nowadays, the importance of protecting natural life and biodiversity has emerged once again, when we are faced with the negative effects of the destruction of human activities on nature and wildlife and on human health. Experts warn that there are 1.7 million unknown viruses living between mammals and waterfowl and that these diseases can be transported to human habitats and cause new pandemics as a result of interventions in natural habitats.

Story of creating a virtual tour to İğneada Longoz forests

Our event is part of the sustainability training we have organised within the scope of our eTwinning project “STEM for all”. You can get information about the project here, and you can visit our project’s Twinspace homepage here.

By organizing a trip to İğneada Longoz forests in our region, we planned to observe the biodiversity here. Unfortunately, this was not possible due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

We carried out our activity in the form of distance education from the 1st to the 30th of April. A group of 10 students took part in the event. Students investigated the extinct species, the effects of global warming and the species living in İğneada Longoz Forests. They presented the findings of their research topics to their friends during online meetings. We used our WhatsApp group, TwinSpace and Edmodo classroom while performing our activity in the distance education process. Finally, we prepared a virtual tour to İğneada Longoz Forests with the data we obtained using Thinglink.

Here you can join our virtual tour and take a walk in the İğneada Longoz Forests.