Project “Hello, Spring!” Terje Tuisk, Janika Ruusmaa I*EARN Estonia

Project “Hello, Spring!”http://tere.kevad.edu.ee

Terje Tuisk <[email protected]>,

Janika Ruusmaa <[email protected]>

I*EARN Estonia

July 12th 2001Terje Tuisk & Janika Ruusmaa Africa Connects, Cape Town

Why Spring?

The arrival of the Spring is very special for Nordic people– Days get longer, there is more sunshine and

light– Migratory birds that left us in the Autumn are

coming back from South– Snow is melting, nature is awakening and first

flowers appear


Basic idea & main goals

Fenological observations of the arrival and development of the Spring in the nature

Goals:– Learn basic nature-observation skills– Learn more about common plant, bird and animal

species living around us– Integration of different subjects– Practice the teamwork and collaboration with students

from other schools– Create database of fenological data gathered by students


Course of the project I

Participants – teachers with their 1-7 grade students from nearly 50 schools– Groups consisted from 3 to 35 students

Course of the project– Indicator species – the first messengers of the Spring– Students had to look for these species and enter the

date when they noticed it for the first time in their neighbourhood.

– Data where entered through on-line form directly to database and results appeared instantly to the web.


Course of the project II

Additional activities – – Poems, drawings and web-creation – created cooperation

between different teachers

E-mail list for the project where were sent:– Announcements of the course of the project– Descriptions of the species as their time approached– Students poetry– Students and organizers personal notes about what they

have seen in the nature– Also teachers sent their messages if they had some kind of

problems that they thought might interest others


Feedback & plans for the future

General feedback was very positive – – students and even teachers and parents learned

a lot about Spring and nature, – students had possibility to practice teamwork

what is not very common in our ed.system,– it was good that students were able to follow

other students work and results


Plans for the future I

Ideas for the future from the teachers feedback questionnaire– Students could write stories about their observation

experiences– There could be also some kind of quiz or competition

for students – this would motivate them even more. This could be compiled by students themselves

– Summer-camp for participants where they can learn more about nature .

– Photo-competition


Plans for the future II

More plans– To translate our web-site to English– To have an international participation in the project

from next Spring– To develop plan for international project by the end of

this year – • most probably the list of species will be open, • there will be more additional activities that would make

students more active and would make them more communicate with each other,

• etc. …

Documents

Project “Hello, Spring!” Terje Tuisk, Janika Ruusmaa I*EARN Estonia