Pupils will explore a biotope in their area and after collecting information working in the field, they are going to exchange this material with the pupils of the twin school. The results of the work will be published in the Internet.

• Subjects: Environmental Education, Geography, History, History of Culture, Informatics / ICT, Media Education
• Languages: EN
• Pupil's age: 13 - 14
• Tools to be used: Chat, e-mail, Forum, Other software (Powerpoint, video, pictures and drawings), Video conference, Virtual learning environment (communities, virtual classes, ...)
• Aims: The purpose of the project is: to make the students aware of their own surroundings, especially those species that need protection direct... read moreThe purpose of the project is: to make the students aware of their own surroundings, especially those species that need protection direct their views into another European country and thus expand their knowledge and understanding of other peoples‘ lives develop the cooperation between pupils and teachers of different European countries promoting mutual understanding and respect of others hide
• Work process: This project started off on the 3rd April 2007. Mr Carsten Carlsen and I met in Brussels in last year’s... read moreThis project started off on the 3rd April 2007. Mr Carsten Carlsen and I met in Brussels in last year’s eTwinning workshops. Mr Carlsen was interested in my previous project that was exhibited in Malta’s stand “Comparing and Contrasting a Maltese Ecosystem with an Italian one”. He asked me if we could work on a similar project together and I agreed. Later on, after many emails of discussing the project, we registered it on the eTwinning twinspace. Carsten asked me if it is ok for me to invite another teacher from Czech Republic to join us in this project and I agreed. Therefore, the 3 participating countries for this project are: • Høng Kommuneskole Høng, Denmark • Dun Guzepp Zammit Brighella BJL Hamrun Malta • Petr Filip from Czech Republic The aims were: 1. to make the students aware of their own surroundings, especially those species that need protection 2. direct their views into another European country and thus expand their knowledge and understanding of other peoples‘ lives 3. develop the cooperation between pupils and teachers of different European countries promoting mutual understanding and respect of others. The original description for this project was: Pupils will explore a biotope in their area and after collecting information working in the field, they are going to exchange this material with the pupils of the twin school. The results of the work will be published in the Internet. Procedure: 1. Carlsen registered the project and invited another teacher from Ceck Republic to join us. This is his email dated 8th April, 2007: Hi Josephine Finely we have got our space. I have a meating with Maria thursdag, where we are to make a plan for the project. I have invitet Petr from Czeck but have not heard from him. Greetings Carsten In the meantime, Carsten and I uploaded some media files on our twin space as introduction of both countries, so that the students can get to know each others’ countries. Carsten uploaded a wmv file about Autumn in Denmark, containing many photos of places near his school. I uploaded 1. a ppt about the Lyceum 2. a video clip showing the Lyceum 3. a ppt about the Maltese islands. The Czech Republic Students did not upload any material about their country. Later on I received this email: Hi Josephine Next week we go to into the nature to gather plants, animal, earth and so on. Every day we work with the subject from 8-13 o’clock. Tuesday We are 3 groupes: the forest, the lake and the stream Wednesday We make laboratorial experiments at school Thursday We make the rapports and PowerPoints, Podcast and so on. Friday the three groups tell one another about their subject at translate into English Best regards Carsten I replied (06/05/07): Hi Carsten How are you Sorry, I didn't notice that I had emails. I only saw them today. Good work. I took my students to different places in Malta. We visited a woodland area; a garigue area; and I will take them to a coastal shore area. I asked them to write an essay about what they think are biotopes. I will type them and upload them soon. How are you going to study the samples that you collect Will you classify them or organise your samples in some way? thanks and regards Josephine Carsten replied on 15/05/07 Hi Josephine We have asked the pupils to make at PowerPoint about their biotopes. I giver you an example her in the space in the folder Denmark. We have not have the time to tranlate it yet, but you can se the way we have done it. Please tell med, if we are to do it in another way where it is more easy to compare the biotopes. Best regards Carsten He uploaded this ppt about the forest. When my students saw this power point, they were impressed by: 1. the amount of time that they have in school to dedicate to fieldwork and the after analysis. With our vast syllabus, we cannot dedicate so much time. However, we visited Buskett, and the work had to be done on site and at home as homework. We took several photos and uploaded them on the Biology web-site as well. This is the power point that we prepared: Photos uploaded on: http://schoolnet.gov.mt/biology/buskettfieldwork.htm Carsten’s e-mail: Hi Josephine I have seen your PP. It is very fine and easy to read. Later, when you have finished the work, we might be able to compare what conditions is the same and what is different. I think we should try to let the students give one another response in forum. The Class have got a new teacher called MONA and I will introduce her to the project. Here it has become very dark and it is raining every day. The temperature is 5 degrees. It becomes dark at 6 o’clock in the evening. Next week the leaves fell off the trees. It will look like this for the next 6 months! I envy you your climate at Malta. ;) Best regards Carsten Power Point of Sand Dune. My email to Carsten: Hi Carsten, Thanks for your comments. This weekend, my students have finished working on another part of the biotopes project. I will upload their work. I think that it will be a better idea if you can send me your students' email addresses and I will send you mine, or else you can ask them to send the emails to my students on my email address, I will print these out and give them to my students to reply. Then, I will send them to you so that you can give the replies to your students. Is it possible to send me some photos of your country at this time of year? I will send you some photos of Malta at this time of year so that our students can understand better how different our countries are and how different the temperatures are. Bye and regards Josephine. Conclusion: First comments overall: The first thing that the students and I noticed while analyzing all the work to write this conclusion is that the Danish students dedicate more time to hands-on work rather than theory. This is evident by the amount of time they took to go on fieldworks and to analyse most of the samples (like leaves, seeds, soil, pH, etc) in the lab. We think that the Maltese Biology syllabus is more vast and more detailed, while the Danish syllabus is less vast but allows more time for such projects. We think that hands on work is important for us all to have more contact with the environment and nature that we study. Another thing that we noticed from the photos is that their laboratory is more equipped than ours. We are limited in the equipment that we can use. Another thing is that we saw the students and the teacher going in the stream to measure its depth at different places. They also got samples of the plants that they encountered and took them to the laboratory to classify them there. This is a very good exercise to learn classification, and to teach classifying skills to the students. However, as already stated, if the teacher doesn’t organize such work for after school activities, there would be no time for such work. Also, I as a teacher wouldn’t go in the water myself, and wouldn’t let the students go in the water to measure its depth because of health and safety measures. However, we appreciate their work. Comparison of work: We could compare the forest in Denmark, the woodland in Malta and the biotope studied in Czech Republic. 1. Malta is far warmer than Denmark or Czech Republic, so the types of plants found in the three places could vary according to temperature tolerance. 2. Malta is an island and the woodland that we studied is far smaller than the two similar biotopes studied in Denmark and Czech Republic. This that might account for the smaller amount of species found in the Maltese biotope. However, we must say that it was impossible for us to study all the species that exist there, so we studied the most obvious and frequent ones. 3. Most of Malta’s woodland is cultivated by man, and most of Denmark and Czech Republic’s woodland are not. This might account for the diversity of species as well. 4. We didn’t capture small insects to classify them later on in the lab and did not collect samples of unidentified plant species. We would have done so if we had a lot of time to work on this project. 5. These are the species and comments about them – if we find them also in Malta or not. We used the book “Wildlife of the Maltese Islands” and checked whether the species are found also in Malta. Common name as known in Denmark Binomial nomenclature Whether this species is also found in Malta or not. The Forest (Denmark): White Anemone Anemone nemorosa In Malta, a slightly different species is found called Anemone coronaria. Flat Star Stellaria holostea This is not found in Malta Vorterod Ranunculus ficaria This species is found in Malta, and the genus is very common. Infact in the Maltese islands one can find: Ranunculus baudotii Ranunculus ballatus Ranunculus peltatus Ranunculus saniculaefolius Ranunculus trichophyllus Maple Acer pseudoplatanus This is not found in Malta. Beech Fagus This is not found in Malta. Ordinary Dog Grass Dactylis glomerata This is not found in Malta. Dactylopterus volitans is a slightly different species. Skovmaerke Galium oderatum This is not found, however Galium aparine is found. Burresnerre Galium aparine This is found in Malta. Enblomstret Flitteraks Melica uniflora This is not found in Malta. Rapgraes Poa trivalis Not found in Malta Skov Galtetant Stachys Not found in Malta Hulrodet laerkespore Corydalis bulbosa Not found in Malta Avens Not found in Malta Little Ash Fraxinus excelsior Not found in Malta Bingelurt Mercurialis perennis A slightly different species is found in the Maltese islands: Mercurialis annua Braken Dryopteris austriaca Not found in Malta Forest fauna Forrest moskito Aedes communis This is found in Malta Ladybird Coccinella setempunctata Found Woodlouse Oniscus asellus Found Black slug Arion ater Found Spider Araneus diamatus Found Birch bug Elasmucha grisea Found Big earthworm Lumbricus terrestris Found Greenfly Myzus persicae Found Millipede Schizophyllum sabulosum Found Skolopendre Litobius fortificatus Found Aftenpafugleoje Smerinthus ocellata Not found Buskett Fauna Frog Discoglossus pictus Lizard Podarcis filfolensis Chamaleonte Chamaleo chameleon Carob tree Ceratonia siliqua Prickly pear tree Opuntia ficus-indica Olive tree Olea europea Pine tree Pinus halepensis Sandarac Tetraclinis articulata White poplar Populus alba Sweet Alison Lobularia maritime White Mustard Diplotaxis eurocoides Cape Sorrell Oxalis pes-caprae Borage Borago officinalis Crown daisy Chrysantemum coronarium White thistle Galactites tomentosa Czech Republic plants Urtica dioica Two other species of Urtica are found in the Maltese islands but not this one. The ones found in Malta are: Urtica dubia Urtica membranacea Galium aparine Found Pulmonaria officinalis Not found in Malta Taraxacum officinale Another species of Taraxacum is found but not this one. The one found in Malta is Taxacum minimum. Veronica chamaedris Another type of Veronica is found but not this one. The one found in Malta is Veronica anagallis-aquatica. Ranunculus acris This species is not found in Malta, however another 6 species of the same genus are found. These are: Ranunculus baudotii Ranunculus bullatus Ranunculus ficaria Ranunculus peltatus Ranunculus saniculaefolius Ranunculus trichophyllus Trifolium pretense This is not found in Malta but another 3 species of the same genus are found. These are: Trifolium campestre Trifolium nigrescens Trifolium stellatum Tilia cordata Not found in Malta Czech Republic Fauna Apis mellifica Apis mellifera is found in Malta. Calosoma sycophanta Not found in Malta. We couldn’t compare the sand dune or the stream because only the Maltese studied sand dune and only the Danish studied stream. However, we learnt from each other because we shared what we found and the Maltese and Czech students learnt about the Danish stream, and the Danish and Czech learnt from the Maltese sand dune. Well done to all the students who participated in this eTwinning project because they showed enthusiasm and contributed with their research and participation in the fieldworks. It was a very nice experience working with other teachers and students from other countries although we don’t know each other and never met. Thank you. ICT Involved: • Power point presentations • Word processing • Photography • Emails • Forum hide
• Expected results: The result are to be published in eTwinning-net and by a Wiki.

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