Abstract

Trees and forests play an important role on climate change and climate change threatens the human life but at the same time it has devastating consequences on biodiversity. “Everybody should have a tree that has wings” is a learning scenario about teaching sustainability through the Terra Mission Educational Pack after the Life Terra Mission MOOC. Inspired by a book called “The tree that had wings”, our learning scenario tries to emphasize the results of climate change, focuses especially on its consequences for biodiversity, underlines the importance of trees and helps to increase students’ awareness on the topic.

Objectives

Introduction (1^st and 2^nd lessons)

Students will:

– read a short story and try to analyse the main theme of the story                                    -learn the names of a few trees and birds and try to recognize them

 The  3^rd and 4^th lessons

Students will :

• observe the nature outside
  • learn what the climate change is, the causes and the results of it
  • understand what they can do to help the climate change
  • create short informative videos using web 2.0 tools like chatterpix and plotagon in order to increase awareness about the climate change.

The 5^th lessons

Students will:

-understand the difference between trees and a forest and how trees “work”
– know why trees and forests are important and  which problems deforestation causes    -understand the importance of planting trees

The final lessons (The 6^th and 7^th lessons)

Students will:

-know what biodiversity is                                                                                                     -understand the effects of the climate chance on biodiversity
-understand the importance of planting trees and  protecting biodiversity
– know and discuss what they can do to help the climate                                                      -create posters using web 2.0 tools like canva to raise awareness about the trees and biodiversity of birds (In relation with the story they read in the introductory lesson)

Activities

In the first lesson, students read a short story called “The tree that had wings” by Angeliki Darlasi.They asked each other questions about the characters of the book, discussed the ending of the story and main theme of it.  They talked about trees and birds because the story was about a tree and a bird’s friendship and their self-sacrifices for each other.

We talked about the importance of all the trees and birds for our planet and the importance of protecting them.

In the second lesson, the students learned about ten different types of trees and birds.

The students were given play cards about birds and trees. They looked at the pictures and the information on the play cards and tried to recognize each different type of a bird or a tree.

Outdoor observations

At the end of the lesson, the students were asked to observe nature for a whole week.  They were expected to recognize some of the tree and bird species they learned before and take notes about them.

In the third lesson, students talked about the birds and trees they observed outside. We went to the school garden together. They tried to make some observations. They talked about the kinds of trees and birds they saw in the garden. They explored the tree leaves and the other plants in the garden. They also learned to use “Leafsnap and Doga kasifi” applications to recognize the plants around them. They shared their observations with each other.