Plants And Animals In Their Natural Environment

The picture is the author’s own – (Attribution CC-BY)

Abstract:

Natural structures consisting of living and non-living elements living in a certain area and constantly interacting with each other are called ecosystems. The ecosystem consists of two elements. These are living things and non-living things. The living elements that concern us are producers, consumers, and decomposers. The richness of the creatures living in a region in terms of variety and number is called biodiversity.

Biodiversity is an important part of the ecosystem. In short, all living species living in a region constitute the biological diversity of that region.

During the pandemic period, our students stayed at their homes and their technology addiction increased. I aimed for our students to go out of their homes to get rid of their technology addiction and to stay away from crowded environments and pay attention to the diversity of life in their natural environment. In our project assignment, students will go out of their homes and take pictures of plants and animals in their gardens, neighborhoods or villages, and present examples of biodiversity.

We were inspired by the LS named “Plants and animals in the seasons” in Scietix resources.

I adapted the LS according to ourselves and the pandemic rules and gave my students a project assignment.

Students should be motivated to take pictures creatively. It should also present a biological phenomenon in a way that other students can gain new insights. The captured photographs will serve as a tool for discovering biological variation and should consist not only of beautiful images, but images that meet the biological content well. At the end of the project, students will make a presentation with the pictures they have taken on ecosystem and biodiversity.

Students’ age: 12 (Grade 6)

Duration: 15.03.2021 – 15.04.2021 (1 month)

Teaching materials

Offline:

Any camera technology can be used to take pictures. Use what is available. Cameras from mobile phones and tablets are the most available and have good quality. The lens is fixed but normally a digital zoom can be used. Old style compact cameras are very good because they normally come with a zoom lens which help to explore different framings more easily.

The video is the author’s own – (Attribution CC-BY)
The picture is the author’s own – (Attribution CC-BY)
The picture is the author’s own – (Attribution CC-BY)
The picture is the author’s own – (Attribution CC-BY)
The picture is the author’s own – (Attribution CC-BY)
The picture is the author’s own – (Attribution CC-BY)
The picture is the author’s own – (Attribution CC-BY)

Assessment Scale:

Title selection, sources of speech12345
Developing and planning the content in accordance with the purpose12345
Using clear, understandable language – Choosing words that fit the context12345
Using connecting sentences in parts of speech and slide transitions12345
Compliance with Powerpoint Presentation Preparation Rules-‘General Principles’12345
Summing up the subject at the end of the narration12345
Eye communication and use of body language – Ensuring the participation of the listeners12345
Compliance with the time allocated for speaking12345
Assessment Scale

The restrictions came again due to the pandemic. Schools are closed again. Students could not make their presentations. Assessment will be made after presentations.

It is raining rocks!

A few weeks ago we read some extremely disturbing news in the national and local online media. As a result of heavy rain in Hermoupolis, our city, debris of an old building had fallen on parked cars and also on a car crossing the road. Some of the cars had serious damages but fortunately, no one was hurt. We felt like it was raining rocks!!

The pupils of the fourth grade (9-10 years old) were really upset with this fact and afraid that a major part of our town is going to collapse in the near future. That been said and after a long conversation between the teacher Mr Nektarios Farassopoulos and the students, we decided to look for answers:

Why are the buildings falling down?
What can we do to prevent similar events in the future?
Which professionals are working in this field?

On Thursday, April 13th, we invited a STEM professional, a Digital Heritage Architect to our online class hoping that he can help us understand more things about that incident. Mr Pavlos Chatzigrigoriou is a Civil Engineer with an MSc in Restoration and Conservation of Monuments, an MSc in Environmental Planning and a PhD in Architecture (Digital Heritage). He is the person who can explain to us what really happened a few weeks ago in our city and what proactive measures can be taken to handle the situation in the future. Also, Mr. Chatzigrigoriou is an excellent role model for the students and his work is a great example of how STEM professionals can help local communities prevent serious problems.

He started his presentation talking about the incident that occurred in our city a few weeks ago.

A bulding that collapsed in Syros, Greece
Continue reading

Creating Ecological Nature-Based Solutions to Urban Problems

Dates When It Occurred: 03.01.2021- 4.19.2021

Teacher and School: Gülümser Şentürk Akkoyun– Meram Şehit Pilot Ayfer Gök Middle School – Konya / Turkey

Student Age: 13 -14 years

Number Of Students: 16


Teaching Method:

Formal Teacher Lecture, Analogy, Demonstration Method, Lecture, Discussion, Question and Answer, Problem / Problem-Solving, brainstorming.

Teaching Qualifications:

Productive, Respectful to Self Values, Rational, Questioning, Creative, Complying with Ethical Rules, Sensitivity to the Environment, Managing Knowledge, Working Independently, Critical Thinking, Working in Teams.


*Summary

This lesson plan includes STEM, NBS-PBS models. It is an ecological, renewable, nature friendly urban design for sustainable development. Students made original designs and worked collaboratively. Plan purpose; to create ecological life with renewable energy sources for a livable world. It is about transforming energy and building biomimic structures. Coding, we used 3D Tinkercad and Arduino. We followed the Hybrid Education system with web 2 tools for distance education.


Continue reading

From compost to meta-competence

The event “From compost to meta-competence” took place on February 24, 2021 from 3 pm to 5 pm, by using the online Classroom platform because in our locality the education takes place online.

The activity was carried out by the mathematics teacher Voinea-Axinte Costica in the 10th grade of high school in the online presence of five teachers from the school. Sustainability education is a prerequisite for post-crisis economic competitiveness COVID 19. Composting is a good excuse to motivate the study of STEM disciplines in the context of climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption.
Competence for sustainability, which will be increasingly in demand in the labor market, such as leadership, will be a meta-competence that includes both multidisciplinary knowledge and all classical transversal competencies. It is obvious that such competence cannot be learned in a course, but it must be trained throughout the education because some of the included competencies can be and it is more effective to be developed from an early age. In my teaching endeavor, I tried to develop environmental protection skills starting from learned notions to biology, geography, chemistry, mathematics, ecology but I took into account the fact that many students are from rural areas and have knowledge related to compost.
The webinar was the first step. In the other online webinars I will use interactive, collaborative, integrative methods, adapted to the age level, multiple intelligences, and different learning styles with the participation of fellow teachers of physics, chemistry, biology, and geography to present students specific notions of disciplines and curricular contents necessary for understanding. phenomena that take place in compost.
The theme of the webinar was one of the main objectives of creating a human resource that can develop a sustainable economy and communities. The approach uses innovative teaching techniques, teaching models such as integrative studies, project-based learning or problems, the main themes of the curriculum can be enriched with current themes of the planet and human life and approached through participatory methods that develop in children and young people the motivation to learning, transversal competences, including innovation, creativity, and independence in thinking necessary for sustainability competence.
Sustainability in education does not mean creating a separate course added to the topics of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, but it means including the key themes of sustainable development in everyday teaching and learning. Making compost is a good excuse to motivate the study of climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption. These webinars motivate and mobilize students and make them change their behavior and act for sustainable development.
My students were happy with the approach taken, they were actively involved, they shared their experience related to the subject of the webinar and they proved the desire to implement the studied notions.

Author: Voinea Axinte Costica