“ The R.I.V.E.R.” Research Inside and Verify the Environmental Risk
Project methodology
The project methodology involves our students in real-life actions whose objectives and stages they know as well as the roles they play. The local river is a precise and real object, which is close to the school and in the municipality, so is accessible and meaningful for the local history. About this river (lake or sea):
Define study
concrete
objectives
of
the
which are linked with the river’s state, characteristics, uses, relations with living creatures (humans included), ways of improving its qualities, and enhancing its advantages. The objective is not necessarily to turn the river into an inaccessible sanctuary but rather to consider possible changes, including of behaviour, to make it a river free of a number of constraints.
Collect data
using various sources such as the subjects taught in class, the web, with users of the river, experts, associations, etc. Data collection is structured and oriented around the previously defined objective of the study. Joint phases planned by the teachers’ team must allow for meeting experts, carrying out scientific analyses, and monitoring groupwork progress.
Understand
the river and its surroundings by bringing together the collected data.
Take action
related to the local river and its populations through internal and external communication such as the etwinning platform to communicate with other European schools, and presentation of results and recommendations to local authorities. Create a website of own river.
Assess the students and project with respect to:
environmental skills and behaviour ICT discipline knowledge and skills, to interdisciplinary skills European cooperation and languages autonomy and critical sense
Stage Contact:The project starts with the contact phase, getting immersed into the subject through various ways An outing for sensorial contact; Audiovisual substitutes such as film, photos; Literature, art, history, debate; A simple and open local survey, etc Web research This phase is essential as it lends meaning to all subsequent work. It allows for the involvement of individuals or groups of students in the field of activity they will have chosen. It promotes the differentiation of research depending on student interests. Thus, one student may prefer lab work while another likes to connect science to nature and learn in a natural setting. It will increase motivation, facilitate their active participation, and the launching of the second stage. This phase can be completed through group techniques like brainstorming, which ensures everyone’s participation and the emergence of a large range of representations of the river. The studied theme will allow a local approach within a global perspective. It will lead to a the start of a systemic construction around the river and its uses. Environmental, social, historical, economic and cultural aspects should then emerge.
Stage
Defining the objective of study: the leading question
The first stage raises questions that lead to the group’s subsequent activities. Collecting data and putting together the questions of the previous phase will help students form groups of 3 to 5 around common interests and personal affinities. Teachers must be particularly attentive during the group formation to ensure the optimum combination of students with respect to students’ personalities, wishes, etc. The leading question about the river should focus on local sustainable development within a global context. One or more characters, «actors» in the sense of acting and participating) A defined context (of time, location…); A question that is not easily answered and needs interdisciplinary concepts
Stage
Knowledge:
This is the time for the groups to carry out active research. They will need to access information and data on the local river. Research sources can be quite varied: Books (school library, public library, municipal or district archives,etc); Internet; collection of water samples and their chemical analysis; Etwinning platform, especially for work carried out by other partner classes. Meeting key people and local actors (scientific, associative, political, industrial …); Such data collection is structured and oriented by the leading question that the group has chosen. There is no need to gather full knowledge about the river. Bringing together the data of all the groups will lead to a diagnosis of the state of the river and the proposals for management and improvement. This stage is carried out by the students autonomously. However, joint sessions will help all students acquire the necessary knowledge and skills necessary to conduct their research. Resorting to partners from diverse interest groups is essential. The partner is addressed and recognised as an expert, with the teacher being sole judge of the educational choices for the class.
Stage
Understanding, diagnosis, proposal:
In each group, bringing together the data will allow an answer, however partial, to the initial leading question. Guided by their teachers, the groups of students will compile their findings. The systemic approach will help grasp how complex environmental problems are; a conceptual framework can then be built. The confrontation of the viewpoints of the different partners that were met should bring up the concept of conflict of usage or interests and the necessity for compromise and negotiation. It must lead to: a diagnosis on the quality of the river related to the foundations of sustainable development; proposals for improvement concerning one or more of the fields studied.
stage
Action:
Production: As the project evolves, the students will formalise and structure their work with various outputs: letters, survey forms, meeting minutes, boards, photos, Web pages (on blogspot.com)... They also have to plan which shape their final output will take (presentation, exhibition, dossier…), their respective involvement and tasks, and the expected results of their actions. This will be uploaded into the “Book of the River”. The final products of the project will be used by the teachers’ team, possibly with the students, to define the assessment procedures.
Communication: Creation and Presentation: the final products give meaning to the projects. An oral presentation to the largest possible public (other classes, teachers, parents,etc) and a summary of activities and conclusions in ENGLISH for the other European classes (on the Book of the River) will increase the sense of responsibility and motivation for the students. The final output is also a relevant indicator for project and student assessment.
The educative team (last but not the least)
The aims of the project require the involvement of team made up of staff members of various and complementary disciplines. The members of the team have to be involved from the very start of the project in order for them to find their place and commit themselves in the long run (even if the breakthroughs are not as quick as expected) Each person’s role and task should be clearly defined and the team is coordinated by project leader who is accepted by all. Mr.Giuseppe Venturi