Digital education materials are very important. Students cannot see space and planets up close in real life.However, it is possible to travel to space with virtual reality glasses. Student can study planets as if they are in space thanks to virtual reaility glasses. For this reason, I designed a digital game for my students that can be played on smartphones and computers. Game editing and voice-overs belong to me and my students.
Project purpose: To give students a realistic experience with STEM. To create an original digital material.
Application stages: Unity Game Engine is used for this application. Unity is a three-dimensional game engine, especially suitable for digital games and simulations. Textures similar to the images of space and planets were determined.Original sound recordings in which the planets introduced themselves were created and converted into a suitable form with the ‘audio-converter’ program. The spaceship was designed with the Blender three-dimensional modeling program.With mathematical calculations, the size of the planets and the distances between them were determined. Joystick control provided. By making a selection from the selection screen prepared to go to the desired planet, movement to that planet was provided with the spaceship. Added pre-made audio recordings to planets. The application was tested by different people and corrections were made according to the feedback. Between April 25 and April 30, 6th grade students practiced. They took turns wearing virtual reality glasses. They also practiced on the digital board in the classroom.
Conclusion and evaluation: The ‘Solar System and Planets’ unit was taught to the students in a shorter time than in the lesson plan. Students learn permanently by concretizing knowledge. It’s fun because it’s game-based material. The subject of Science was discussed. Mathematical calculations have been made. Software programs are used in the field of technology. Designs were created in the field of engineering. An original STEM project has been created. This project has been used in the classroom activity.
Students’ average success before the event is 64 percent. After the event, the students’ average success is 92 percent.
Activity execution time in class: 40+ 40 minutes
Grade level: Secondary school 6th grade
Materials: Smart board in the classroom, virtual reality glasses, joystick, smartphone
Creation and Implementation of a learning scenario
As children grow and understand the world around them, it is important they value water as being vital for their health and for a healthy environment. In a flexible learning environment (FLE), students will explore, investigate, and collect data about: sources of water, the need of water in our life, water cycle, water waste vs responsible consumption of water. Students will acquire a better understanding of how our actions could affect, positively or negatively, our water and, in consequences, the world around us.
Subject:
Language and Communication, Citizenship, Mathematics and Environmental Exploration, Science, Technology, Outdoor experience, Arts
Topics:
Forms of Water, Sources of Water, Water Cycle, Water Waste vs Responsible consumption of water, Water and Sanitation, Water and Plants
Age of students:
6-7 years old (or older students by designing tailored content and tools)
Aim of the lesson:
By the end of the lesson students will be able to understand the importance of water in our lives, to identify sources of water, to learn about water cycle, water waste vs responsible consumption of water and simultaneously become agents of change in their school, local community and beyond.
Trends:
Project-Based Learning: students get fact-based tasks, problems to solve and they work in groups.
Lifelong Learning: learning does not stop when leaving school.
Collaborative Learning: a strong focus on group work.
STEM Learning: Increased focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics subjects in the curriculum
Outdoor Education: learning outside of the school building in the “real” environment
Student Centered Learning: students and their needs are at the center of the learning process.
Active Learning: Students are actively engaged with the lesson through discussions, problem-solving, experiments and other methods.
Peer Learning: students learn from peers and give each other feedback.
Edutainment: playful learning. Learning while having fun.
Augmented Reality: by pointing devices like smartphones and tablets to objects of reality you receive extra information.
Leadership and responsibilities – students will develop the ability to guide and motivate each other.
21st century skill:
While this learning scenario focuses on the 4C’s of 21st Century Skills- Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity it will also strengthen among students many other 21st century skills, such as:
Ways of thinking: creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, decision-making and learning to learn.
Ways of working: communication, collaboration, teamwork.
Tools of working: information literacy and ICT literacy
Living in the world: citizenship, life and career skills, personal and social responsibility.
The backgroud of the learning scenario
Activities done within this learning scenario are part of Sustainable Education and Cultural Heritage eTwinning project. Transnational teams of teachers and students from France, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Georgia, and Romania were formed to carry out collaborative activities.By representing WATER and by following the approach of Team-Based Learning (TBL), my students will worked collaboratively with students from Romania (LAND), France (AIR) and Georgia (ANIMALS), as part of the transnational team “Beautiful”.
Addressing sustainability in primary education from a water perspective might be challenging and demanding, but it is needed. Therefore, I started the implementation of this LS by designing activities focused on the key role that water could play in teaching & learning related to sustainable development goals. The pupils of today are the grown-up population of tomorrow thus they firstly should become aware of the impact of their actions on the environment. As teachers we have the responsibility to take an action by sharing knowledge and providing practical tools to make learning appealing and fun while ensuring students consider the environmental, economic, and social impacts of their actions and decisions in the local and global community. This learning scenario provides a collection of ecological activities that should start to be taught from an early age.
Lesson 1: What’s with Water? Blue, Blue Everywhere!
Language and communication
Brainstorming and whole class discussion
A flexible, comfortable, and friendly working environment has previously organized in the classroom. Whole class is invited to discover and explore the Corner of Water: a world globe, aquatic plants, aquatic animals, books, magazines, and encyclopaedias for little students. (Annex 2 includes a list of materials needed for organizing the Corner of Water and photos).
After exploring the Corner of Water, students will take turns observing the world globe. By using the Google Earth Pro, teacher launches the driving-question:
Why is our Earth called Blue Planet?
Following, students start brainstorming around the question. With teacher guidance a discussion about water will be held.
How much water is on Earth?
Why is water important?
Could we live without water?
Where does the water we drink comes from?
Are humans the only ones who need water for living?
Students are encouraged to share their opinions and talk freely about water and its importance.
Explanation and Discussion
Based on students’ responses, teacher explains to students that Planet Earth has been called “Blue Planet” due to the abundant water on its surface. Liquid water covers most of the surface of our planet and that’s why people take it for granted. However, in some parts of the world the lack of clean water affects the health of the people. Without water there would be no life, so it is important to value and preserve it.
Lesson 2: Water, in all its forms!On, In and Above the Earth…
Science
Part 1: Whole class discussion
Teacher initiates a guided discussion related to the states of water:
Have you ever touched the water? (If yes, what did you feel?)
How many forms of water can we observe?
What is ice?
What does water turn into ice?
The lesson continues with a manipulation session. Students will receive an ice cub on a small plate. They are asked to hold the ice cube in their hands and observe.
What did you notice?
What did happen with the ice cube?
Why is the ice cube melting?
Students are encouraged to realize that the warmth of their hands is melting the ice.
Teacher explanation
Teacher talks about the different states of water by giving examples.
Water exists in many forms, such as liquid, solid, as in snow and ice, underneath the land surface as groundwater, and in the atmosphere, as invisible water vapor. Ice is frozen water. Water that we drink is liquid. Steam is also a form of water. We can see steam when we take a hot bath.
To extend the knowledge related the states of water, students will watch the video “Water cycle” and “Sources of Water.
Pictures can speak a thousand words. Therefore, on a flip chart a A3 picture related to water cycle is displayed. Same picture is given to students as a flashcard to be drawn. Teacher shows to the class a variety of pictures representing the sources of water.
Part 2: Exploration and investigation through the experiment “Make your own rain”
Driving question: Would you like the rain disappears?
The experiment focuses on what a cloud is and what makes it rain. Students will understand the connection between clouds and rain and recognize the pattern that clouds are necessary for rain. The activity starts by watching a video about what rain is and have a class discussion about the importance of rain and how we use water in our daily life.
Teacher tells students that even though some people may not enjoy rainy days, the water we get from rain is very important for people, plants, animals, in fact, for our Earth. By working in small group, the teacher directs and guides students to do each step of the experiment.
Each group will receive two plastic glasses (one of the glasses needs to be drilled with a toothpick; use the toothpick to make small and big drops), a spoon, a glass jar, large cotton balls, blue tempera/acrylic paint. The drilled plastic glass will be putted at the top of the jar. Students will be pouring 20 spoons of water in the other plastic glass and colour the water in blue. The coloured water will be poured over the cotton ball. When the cotton balls will be fully filled with water, “the rain” will be seen inside the glass jar. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MUy3FAGBhYU
Teacher Explanation:
The clouds are made of tiny droplets of water. Up in the air, within a cloud, water droplets condense onto one another, causing the droplets to become bigger/ heavier. When they get too heavy to stay in the cloud, they fall to Earth as rain.
Lesson 3: Water for life. Make a change! Be water wise!
Mathematics, Art, Citizenship (non-STEM subjects)
Part 1: Water Waste vs Responsible consumption of water
Through this activity little students will understand and appreciate the value of water.
Driving question: What will living beings do without water?
By answering to the question, students are challenged to find ways to harmonize the water requirements with those of the natural environment. By working in two teams, students are going to create awareness drawings posters and digital posters in Canva.
The Detective Kids and the Trackers Kids teams are in charge with finding solution for saving water at school and at home and to work together for products that will help others to value, respect, and, above all, not waste water.
Part 2: Water and Sanitation
Teacher starts by talking about how water is essential for human health and well-being as it allows them to meet basic human needs such as drinking water and sanitation services. Through this part of the lesson, students will understand the connection between water and health by creating videos to promote healthy habits related to water. The products are expected to persuade the other students of the school and all the children to take care of their personal hygiene and to use water wisely in their daily life.
Students (with the help of teacher) will record a demonstration of how to brush the teeth and how to wash hands and avoid water waste at the same time.
Children have many choices when it comes to beverages, and unfortunately, many children are reaching for sugar-laden drinks instead of water. In this part of the activity, students will learn about the importance of staying hydrated for their health.
Driving-question: Do you drink enough water or not? The answers to the question will trigger students’ curiosity to collect information about the water they drink at school and at home. This part of the activity requires parents’ involvement. For one month, students will monitor their drinking water consumption.
Lesson 4: Water, plants, and butterflies’ friendship
Outdoor experience, Engineering& Technology
Part 1
Driving-Question: Who’s the best, best friend of a plant?
After giving their opinions students are invited to watch the video “The needs of a plant”:
Students are taken in an outdoor setting. Teacher explains that they will participate in a Seed Finding Adventure. They are asked to find in the school garden 5 seed sachets. Once they are done, have them open the sachets and examine the seeds they have found. Students receive the materials and directions on how to place seeds in a glove (Annex 6). To better understand the relationship between water and plants, students will investigate the germination of seeds by exploring what plants need to grow.
Part 2: An apple a day keeps the doctor away!
Driving-question: Where does apple come from?
The previous outdoor activity will open the windows for discovering the development stages of a plant (an apple tree) and allow students to make real-world connection with the life cycle of a plant by exploring the elements of it.
In this part of the lesson students will work individually to cut imagines, arrange, and glue them in the correct order and assemble the components for designing the life cycle of an apple three. (Annex 7)
At the end of this activity students will learn that seeds need light, correct temperature, water, and air to germinate. After the germination, the plants will be planted and helped to grow for producing healthy food.
Part 3: Augmented reality
Driving-question: What other living beings need water to survive?
By using Quiver app, students will work in small groups to colour, scan, play and have fun while learning about a monarch butterfly life cycle.
During the lesson, students were immersed in experiences within which they gained in depth-understanding about the connection between water, plants, and all living beings. Students answers to the driving question of this lesson will be summarized in the proverb: Water, A friend in a need is a friend indeed!
At the end of the activity, students and teacher discuss, give feedback, share thoughts and opinions. Teacher will help and support students to organize a public event at school. Representatives of local community, parents, students and teachers of the school will be invited to attend to an online session with an expert in SDG’s goals. After that, all the learning products produced will be presented by teams of students. An exhibition will be placed at the entrance of the school during the school year as an example of responsible actions to save water, protect and preserve the environment.
Teacher will upload the results in a padlet that will be shared on social media channels. All the participants to the public event will complete an online survey aimed to find out the impact of the activities done within the project.
Children are curious and they begin to know and perceive the world at an early age. From the moment they are born, they tend to explore the environment by observing. In the “concrete operations” period, children tend to learn information with the help of materials. The information of children that learned through material becomes more pernament and open to discuss so that’s why we designed a rocket from bottle that will work with water to help our students to improve the interest that they have about space in our eTwinning project “STEM in Space”.
First, we cut a conical cap and glued it as the tip of our plastik bottle and we made support legs from thick cardboard because our bottle was upside down. Then, we placed the relief valve in the cork stopper in such a way that water does not leak into the mouth of the bottle. Moreover, we put about a quarter of the water in the bottle. After that, we pumped air into the bottle with a bicycle pump. The plastic bottle jumped upwards in ten seconds.
To sum up, as we are awere of the importance of using materials during education period and we want to raise the interest of our students in STEM in Space topic, we desinged a rocket that can work with gas pressure. We hope it will be useful for my fellow colleagues and their dear students. I wish you an education life which is full of material learning eduation and of course space interest.
While technological developments are taking place rapidly in recent years, we think that STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education should be given starting from primary school in order for students to overcome the problems they may encounter in real life. They will learn to use 21st-century skills. Our goal is to raise individuals who can deal with problems and use scientific ways.
Ages: 5-12
Duration: 7 months
Lesson Hours: 1 Lesson hour every week
GOALS
By integrating STEM subjects, we encourage students to use the 5E Learning Model, Project-Based Learning, engineering designs and to work collaboratively to structure the teaching-learning process in a way that enables students to demonstrate the scientific thinking process, and to transfer knowledge to new situations. It provides benefits such as psychological vitality, superior cognitive functioning, less illness, and faster recovery after an illness in all individuals, especially in children. In fact, scientific research and design-based thinking are the basis of decision-making processes in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. We want to prepare students for life by thinking that their learning by doing-living is permanent.
Integrating engineering and science provides opportunities for students to develop their learning and interest as they are exposed not only to science content but also to scientific research. We also want to change the idea that women are (unconsciously) incapable of science in society and eliminate the sexist approach.
NOVEMBER:
Project preparation work will be done.
There will be an introductory webinar.
A pallet will be created and all partners will write their expectations about the project here.
The poster of the project will be prepared and the poster determined by the majority will be selected.
Task distribution will be made.
Creating a blog and website.
Creating a corner of curiosity in the classroom.
Classroom reading and review of Hubert Reeves’s “Oceans” and “The Jungle”
DECEMBER:
Introducing the word Science, which constitutes STEM.
Organizing science competition using Kahoot app.
Rearranging the classroom seating in accordance with the project activities. To ensure that the classroom is used as a laboratory in order to develop problem-solving skills.
Formation of student teams. Making students understand that the research process is more important than the result.
Observing animals and leaves in the natural environment. Making presentations about the observation results. Bilingual presentations will be provided for students.
Watching documentary.
Using virtual reality glasses.
Using the see, think, wonder method, students interpret pictures and create a word cloud with the mentor application.
New Year’s card preparation and correspondence of schools.
JANUARY:
Giving information about the word Technology that makes up STEM. According to this, a lesson plan will be prepared.
Preparing and sharing the lesson plans containing coding activities without a computer. Thus, exchanging ideas. Conducting coding activities without a computer.
Finding and presenting biomimicry samples
Presentation by an expert on STEM careers.
Making various video presentations about Stem future careers for parents and students.
Making and presenting pinwheels using scientific inquiry methods
FEBRUARY:
Creating a class on the Code.org platform and students completing coding games on this platform.
Preparing and using plant puzzles for students to get to know and experience nature directly.
Preparation of e-safety day events.
MARCH:
Observing the sky. Talking about the types of clouds they see, drawing them.
Observing how seeds grow. Growing plants.
Spacecraft design.
APRIL:
Earth Day events.
Making Science and Mathematics designs by using the Scamper technique.
Designing plants with origami.
MAY:
Conducting a survey to evaluate the project process. Exchanging information on whether the project objectives have been achieved or not.
E-twinning day events
Creation of the project virtual exhibition
By bringing different disciplines together, to establish a connection between the information encountered in real life and the learned information and to ensure the realization of meaningful learning. By contributing to the development of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) literacy and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education global entrepreneurship; to establish links between the school and the community. In addition, to enable students to make connections between the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and to apply these connections. To embody the subjects and increase the motivation of the students with the teaching that includes STEM-based activities. Students solving engineering problems in science and mathematics classes also facilitate their learning of science and mathematics.
To increase the cognitive development of children by improving their awareness, reasoning, and observational skills with nature practices. We aim to create a sense of unity and peace in children and to develop their observation skills. In this process, children’s interaction with peers and adults enriches their perceptions of objects and events in their environment, thus realizing a permanent learning process.
We prepared a new year calendar with the logos prepared by the project partners: https://twinspace.etwinning.net/files/collabspace/0/40/140/208140/images/c5678b8c2.jpg
As the 15 Temmuz Ortaokulu , we prepared a stem discovery campaign exhibition.
Before we prepare our posters and invitations.
Our school’s art street studies were carried out. Our teachers worked very hard for the stem exhibition.
STEAM and Art Street work was carried out in the corridors of our school under the leadership of our school Technology and Design Teacher Zeynep KAYA and by Visual Arts Teacher Melih Ulaş Kılınç.
https://youtu.be/EVGF02xc6hg
Thanks to (Zeynep KAYA ), Visual Arts Teacher( Melih Ulaş Kılınç) and students for their work.
Exhibition works of our school science teachers.
While we were making our exhibition, all our teachers worked very eagerly, and the students worked towards sustainable development goals.
The students exhibited model houses they made with solar energy panels as a solution to the goal of sustainable development (climate action).,With our exhibition, we partially achieved the goal of quality education, one of the sustainable development goals and our students had the chance to exhibit the materials they produced by doing and living. bridges with cultural significance, structures of historical importance, simple machines, and kindergarten students exhibited their eTwinning projects about recycle in our exhibition.
This exhibition was to increase students 21st century skills and raise awareness of real life problems. Participation was intense as parents, students, tradesmen and neighborhood. Our exhibition came to a very successful conclusion. Thanks to everyone who contributed.The school administration supported our work and always helped us, we also thank them.
https://youtu.be/KxwWXn7AoPk
Başpınar'da 15 Temmuz Ortaokulu'nda öğretmenlerimiz ve öğrencilerimiz tarafından hazırlanan Sanat Sokağı ile Stem Sergisi'ni gezdik. pic.twitter.com/6QnI9PUjgg
