Maltese Ecosystem

2007-05-27T03:52:00.000-07:00

We are the Winners of the 2007 National eTwinning Awards

2007-05-27T03:50:00.000-07:00

Josephine Ebejer Grech wins first prize during the National eTwinning Conference held last Friday 25th May 2007.

Josephine Ebejer Grech, from “Dun Guzepp Zammit Brighella” Boys’ Junior Lyceum Hamrun, is the winner of the secondary schools category etwinning projects. This competition was open to all those teachers who have worked on an etwinning project. The winning project is “Comparing and Contrasting a Maltese Ecosystem with an Italian Ecosystem”.

This project started off when Josephine found Pia’s proposal on the twin finder of the etwinning web site. Pia Avolio de Martino is an Italian Biology teacher at “I. C. Casati” – Secondary School C.URBANI Muggiò (Milan) – Italy. Josephine was interested in working on such a project which involved studying a Maltese ecosystem and comparing and contrasting it with an Italian ecosystem. So together, they registered the project on the etwinning portal.

First, the Maltese students introduced themselves with the Italian students by sending emails to each other. This was the first step that involved ICT. Later on, the students prepared power point presentations about the Maltese Islands and Italy (Milan) and sent them over to each other to introduce their countries to each other.

The project itself started when the students used to go out on fieldworks to study the ecosystems. The Maltese ecosystem chosen was a woodland at Buskett. The fieldworks in Malta used to be organized on Sundays as not to miss other important lessons from school. The students were asked to attend with their parents and these helped a lot in the process.

First we measured an area to be studied. Then we sampled the area using quadrat method. We ended up with a list of 66 species. Then, we chose the most common ones and deceided to study them in more detail. The students took photos, looked up information, measured trees, plants, and filled in many handouts that were prepared by both the Italian and the Maltese teachers. These handouts were used by the Italian students as well, so that when comparing and contrasting, the information would be available. Videos were also taken during the fieldworks so that the Italian students get better idea of what the Maltese students were studying.

The Maltese students prepared summarized information about the species that they studied. They presented this information as power point presentation and sent it over to Italy. The Italian students did the same. The Maltese also filmed video clips of themselves explaining to the Italians the information about each species. A lot of ICT was involved here: filming, editing, uploading and sending through emails and through web sites. The Maltese students created 2 blogs and the etwinning web site as well. First they used to upload all their information, and photos on a blog http://malteseecosystem.blogspot.com, and later on they created another blog on which they could upload their video clips as well. This is http://hamrunlyceum.multiply.com.

Then, they had to compare and contrast the ecosystems, and this was very difficult at their ages. But with lots of research, they managed. When the work was finalized, the students used “Micosoft Publisher” to create a brochure. They sent this brochure to the Italian students as well.

The Maltese students who voluntarily chose to work in this project are Andre Portelli, Matthew Mintoff, Paul Vella, Joseph Bellizzi, Andrew Portelli, Neville Micallef, Nico Caruana, Christian Borg, Steve Mifsud, Kurt Bugeja, Dion Gauci, Ryan Saliba, Joshua Vella, and Ryan Darmanin.

New Project "Wild Orchids Around Europe"

2007-04-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

The aim of the project is two folded. The first one is to let pupils know the school system of partners’ schools. In this way the pupils will have the opportunity to compare similarities and differences among their countries and other countries in the European Union.

The second one is to let pupils do a mutually planned scientific research on Wild Orchids found in their region, and share results with their partners.

Students age: 12 - 14

Subjects:

• Foreign language, civil education (first part)

• Geography, geology, botany (scientific work)

• Email connections, electronic presentation tools, digital photography, digital imaging software (ICT)

Languages: English

Duration: 6 months, January-June 2007

School grade: Secondary

Following our first etwinning project “Comparing and Contrasting a Maltese Ecosystem with an Italian one”, this is a follow up. We enjoyed the first etwinning project so much, that we immediately agreed with the Italian and Danish schools to enrol on this project as well. In this way, we can continue organising fieldworks on Sunday mornings, and continue learning more ecology on location. We will be focusing on the wild orchids, that are very difficult to find, and in the mean time, the students are learning more and more Maltese plant species, by comparing the plants that we encounter to books to try to identify the species and hence we are learning their names and more information about them. If it wasn’t for such projects, my students won’t have the opportunity to learn so much about Maltese species.

AIMS

The students use English, a foreign language for all partners schools, in order to exchange information.

In the first part, about their school (building, subjects and timetable, liking and disliking in subjects) and about themselves (physical appearance, family and so on)

Exchanging this information they can better know the culture of the country of the partner schools.

In the second part, they’ll research and write about their region, geographical and geological descriptions of where wild orchids can be found and about wild orchids species.

As a conclusion, in the blooming period, if possible for all partner schools, each one will bring pupils on the field and they’ll do a simple research on wild orchids species found, number of specimens, approximate position of them, taking also pictures. These will be shared via email between all school partners.

In this way they can know better how to organize a work flow and communicate found results with the side result of discussing an enchanting subject, studied in an almost straight line south to north for about 2500 km.

They use the ICT and the group work.

The model of collaboration that has been chosen is the teacher team twinning and the cross-curricular option where groups of teachers work together on a common theme and discover that the world of education is one.

EDUCATIVE VALUE

The project gives the students a chance to get a general view of schools in other countries and of how pupils around Europe Union deal with a common task.

EDUCATIVE USE OF THE INFORMATIC TOOLS

Working on the project pupils improve their computer-related skills

• Digital cameras for recording work and digital imaging programs

• Word processors for writing down essays

• Electronic presentations of the work and pictures taken

• Emails in order to exchange such information, pictures and texts

DETAILED PROJECT DESCRIPTION

December. Work done in advance, presentation text written to be sent later on. Pupils on the same class will be coupled and will work on the same sub-project (i.e. school presentation; school level…)

A. The partners
1. Presentation of the school. School level, school system, timetable, organization and so on.
2. Presentation of the pupils themselves

B. The preparatory work

1. Presentation of the Country and Region where each partner school is

2. Geography of the place where orchids are found

From January, real start of the exchange. Sending by email of the work so done.

3. Description, pictures, data, and so on of the places where wild orchids are to be found:
• geology of the locations
• what kind of land there’s (hills, plains…)
• rough sketch of the climate there
• kind of vegetation around places where orchids are to be found (trees, meadows…)
• orchids themselves (species, habitat, blooming season…)

From March on. Field work. Two to three trips with the pupils to where orchids are found.

C. The orchids

“Orchids Chase”. The pupils will be joined in small groups. Each one will receive a picture sheet of the orchids more probably found in the location, a registration sheet where enter name, approximate position and the numbers of orchids found, and they’ll hunt wild orchids for two or three hours.

Sharing the results of the “chase” emailing presentations with text, data and pictures.

During the same trips picture contest between pupils to be judged by partners school pupils.

June, till the end of term.

D. Discussion of the results between the pupils themselves.
Each other will write his/her impression of the work done.

In this project we are focusing on photography, comparing the plants to diagrams and pictures that we find in books, and learn more about them. The students are doing research about the orchids, and they are learning more about orchids found on the Maltese islands, and those found in Denmark and Germany.

Apart from the Biological point of view, the students are learning more how to communicate by emails, taking photos, and sending presentations to each other across countries. In their emails, they don’t only ask about the orchids, but about everything: the school system, the weather, their lifestyles, where they go out in the evenings, what they do during lent and Easter times, what they eat, customs, traditions etc.

eTwinning Project - Looking for Wild Orchids

2007-04-27T06:15:00.000-07:00

Looking for wild Orchids

Students from class form 4.2

etwinning project - Wild Orchids Around Europe

The Biology Web Site

2007-04-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

http://schoolnet.gov.mt/liceohamrun/biology/biologyweb.html

Photos

2007-04-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

Progress of Work

2007-04-27T06:02:00.000-07:00

Progress Card – etwinning project “Wild Orchids Around Eurpe”

A. The partners
1. Presentation of the school. School level, school system, timetable, organization and so on.
2. Presentation of the pupils themselves

• This part of the project was successfully completed. We prepared some power point presentations about:
a. the history of the lyceum
b. the lyceum today
c. information about the number of classes in each form (from form 1 to form 5); the subjects studied at each form; the number of students in each class; the time table etc. . .
d. a short video clip to show the Lyceum – this film is accompanied the song that the Lyceum choir interpreted.
e. Information about the Maltese students was sent both to the Italian students and the Danish students. The students included their own picture and some information about themselves.
f. e-mails have been exchanged between all students of all countries.

B. The preparatory work
1. Presentation of the Country and Region where each partner school is
2. Geography of the place where orchids are found

• Other e-mails have been sent to all other partners schools about point 1.
• About point 2 a general description of the place where wild orchids are found has been prepared and sent with pictures as well – we sent a power point presentation about the Maltese islands; and some information about the place (Buskett) where the first fieldwork was carried out. We will soon send more information about the other locations where the next fieldtrips will be carried out. We also sent photos of the place

C. The orchids
“Orchids Chase”.

I prepared handouts about the ‘Wild Orchids’ that are found in the Maltese Islands. I also prepared a power point presentation about these orchids. We had a familiarisation session, where all the students, parents and families analysed the photos, pictures and information about orchids, to prepare themselves for the “orchids’ chase”. When everyone was informed about what we were going to look for, we went for the chase. We took 2 books with us “Wildlife of the Maltese Islands” and “ Wild Plants of Malta”. We also took a chart to compare the plants that we find to the photos/ pictures / info that we have on the books and chart.

a. The students (together with their parents, brothers and sisters), were allowed to roam the Buskett garigue for some time. They were being filmed and photographed.
b. It was very disappointing that we only found 2 orchids of the same species “Ophrys fusca”.
c. The conclusions for finding only 1 species and only 2 plants of this species could be:
 Lack of education – people see nice flowers and cut them to take them home. This leads to destruction of the species – these plants grow by seeds that are produced in the flowers. Once that the seeds find suitable ground on which they can germinate, they must first be infected by a fungus, otherwise they won’t germinate. So their germination isn’t as easy as the germination of any other plant. Therefore, if the people cut the flowers, that are the reproductive organs of the orchids, these will not produce seeds, and hence will not germinate new plants. This could be one reason why the number of orchids in Malta is on the decline
 Not in season. Some orchids flower between January and February, therefore, they might have flowered, and now they are not in flowers any more. This makes it more difficult for us to identify their plants. Others flower later on during the year, so we might have missed these as well.

We measured the 2 orchids that we found. One was 16cm and the other 27cm. We photographed them, but since we only found 2, we cannot organise the photo competition as planned before.

We did another fieldwork in Wardija where we found numerous Maltese Pyramidal Orchids. Around 37 – measurements between 14 and 37cm.

We did another fieldwork on Dingli Cliffs where we found 19 Pyramidal Orchids that are still growing. The measurements are between 7 and 20cm.

We organised a fieldwork at Ghar Lapsi on the 14th April, 2207; a fieldwork at Pembroke on the 20th April 2007; a fieldwork at Salib ta’ l-Gholja on the 22nd April, 2007. We found hundreds of orchids of the types:

Brown Orchid
Common Pyramidal Orchid
Maltese Pyramidal Orchid
Scented Bug Orchid
Small flowered tongue Orchid.

Another Blog

2007-04-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

Our Experience during the etwinning project

2007-03-16T05:52:00.000-07:00

Etwinning – Dun Guzepp Zammit Brighella Hamrun.

The Lyceum is currently engaged in an etwinning project with an Italian school. In this etwinning project the Maltese students are studying a Maltese ecosystem, while the Italian students are studying an Italian ecosystem. Finally, the students compare and contrast both ecosystems. But how can they do this if they are far away from each other? The answer is ICT. The internet, emails, and electronic communication can make all this possible. Josephine Ebejer Grech who is the Biology teacher at the Hamrun Junior Lyceum, found an Italian partner from the ‘twin finder’ section of the etwinning web site. They both decided that they want their students to work on ecology. One of the reasons is that the students need more hands on learning and field work observations to learn about species that are common in their respective countries. 14 students volunteered to participate from the Maltese side, and 16 students from the Italian side. The Maltese students are: Andre Portelli, Matthew Mintoff, Paul Vella, Joseph Bellizzi, Andrew Portelli, Neville Micallef, Nico Caruana, Christian Borg, Steve Mifsud, Kurt Bugeja, Dion Gauci, Ryan Saliba, Joshua Vella, and Ryan Darmanin.

The Maltese students chose part of the woodland in Buskett as their ecosystem to be studied. They were briefed by their teacher and wrote the first chapter of this project “What is an ecosystem” and “Which are the major ecosystems that one can find in the Maltese islands?”.

The next step was for them to go on location to start the work. They visited Buskett on Sundays, when they could not miss any other important lessons. The parents were asked to accompany their children, and these too were involved in the fieldwork. The students had to first, sample the area by quadrat methods. Then, they started counting the number of species and list the species richness and diversity. Later, the students were given handouts to fill in with information of their observations. Finally the students ended up with lots of handouts full of information.

Back at school, the teacher collected all the information, and prepared power point presentations with summarised information. During the fieldworks, the students were filmed, so the editing also had to be done.

Chapter 2 was written. This involves the methodology adopted for the studies. It also contains the full list of species encountered and their numbers. These are accompanied by photos.

Chapter 3 is dedicated to the information found about each species. This information was prepared as a power point presentation and sent to the Italian group. From these, we received their power point as well.

Chapter 4 includes all the handouts given to the students to fill in. These are categorised according to trees, plants, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals.

Chapter 5 includes more information, and Chapter 6 is the conclusion. In this chapter the students, together with their teacher, compared and contrasted both Maltese and Italian ecosystems. The Italians studied trees that we don’t find in Malta, and vice versa. The Maltese were so astonished when they heard from the Italians, that they have no chameleon in their country, but some are found in Sicily. The students analysed differences in temperature, humidity and soil type and accounted for certain plants growing in one ecosystem and not in another, and so on. . .

The seventh and final chapter includes information about all the students. It also includes a hard copy of the power points, and links to the blog and web site that the students did. The address of the blog is:

http://malteseecosystem.blogspot.com.

and the address of the web sites are :
http://my.twinspace.etwinning.net/ecosystem?l=en,
and
http://hamrunlyceum.multiply.com
This was a very enjoyable experience. The professional relationship between the teacher, parents and students got better, and there is more mutual respect. Apart from this, all learnt from the fieldworks and from the comparisons with the Italian ecosystem.

On the 22nd February, a small ceremony was held at the Hamrun Lyceum, where the parents of the students who participated in the etwinning project were invited. The ceremony started when Ms Josephine Ebejer Grech (biology teacher) welcomed the parents and students and presented a power point presentation to explain what the project involved by referring to every single chapter. Then, the students made their own presentations to the audience, regarding the species that they studied, and the DVD was shown. The head master made a speech and presented a certificate to every student. Then, all the parents and students were invited for a small reception.

Later on that day, Ms Ebejer Grech flew to Brussels together with 7 other teachers and heads of schools, to attend the annual etwinning awards conference. Once there, Josephine was surprised to see that the video of her students was the Maltese video chosen to be viewed by 400 heads of schools, teachers and National Support Service people from all over Europe. There was great applause and it was evident that this work was highly appreciated. Many members had good comments about this project and many teachers from different countries asked to join this project.

Etwinning – Dun Guzepp Zammit Brighella Hamrun - Malta.

2007-03-04T05:49:00.000-08:00

The Lyceum is currently engaged in an etwinning project with an Italian school. In this etwinning project the Maltese students are studying a Maltese ecosystem, while the Italian students are studying an Italian ecosystem. Finally, the students compare and contrast both ecosystems. But how can they do this if they are far away from each other? The answer is ICT. The internet, emails, and electronic communication can make all this possible. Josephine Ebejer Grech who is the Biology teacher at the Hamrun Junior Lyceum, found an Italian partner from the ‘twin finder’ section of the etwinning web site. They both decided that they want their students to work on ecology. One of the reasons is that the students need more hands on learning and field work observations to learn about species that are common in their respective countries. 14 students volunteered to participate from the Maltese side, and 16 students from the Italian side. The Maltese students are: Andre Portelli, Matthew Mintoff, Paul Vella, Joseph Bellizzi, Andrew Portelli, Neville Micallef, Nico Caruana, Christian Borg, Steve Mifsud, Kurt Bugeja, Dion Gauci, Ryan Saliba, Joshua Vella, and Ryan Darmanin.

The Maltese students chose part of the woodland in Buskett as their ecosystem to be studied. They were briefed by their teacher and wrote the first chapter of this project “What is an ecosystem” and “Which are the major ecosystems that one can find in the Maltese islands?”.

The next step was for them to go on location to start the work. They visited Buskett on Sundays, when they could not miss any other important lessons. The parents were asked to accompany their children, and these too were involved in the fieldwork. The students had to first, sample the area by quadrat methods. Then, they started counting the number of species and list the species richness and diversity. Later, the students were given handouts to fill in with information of their observations. Finally the students ended up with lots of handouts full of information.

Back at school, the teacher collected all the information, and prepared power point presentations with summarised information. During the fieldworks, the students were filmed, so the editing also had to be done.

Chapter 2 was written. This involves the methodology adopted for the studies. It also contains the full list of species encountered and their numbers. These are accompanied by photos.

Chapter 3 is dedicated to the information found about each species. This information was prepared as a power point presentation and sent to the Italian group. From these, we received their power point as well.

Chapter 4 includes all the handouts given to the students to fill in. These are categorised according to trees, plants, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals.

Chapter 5 includes more information, and Chapter 6 is the conclusion. In this chapter the students, together with their teacher, compared and contrasted both Maltese and Italian ecosystems. The Italians studied trees that we don’t find in Malta, and vice versa. The Maltese were so astonished when they heard from the Italians, that they have no chameleon in their country, but some are found in Sicily. The students analysed differences in temperature, humidity and soil type and accounted for certain plants growing in one ecosystem and not in another, and so on. . .

The seventh and final chapter includes information about all the students. It also includes a hard copy of the power points, and links to the blog and web site that the students did. The address of the blog is:

http://malteseecosystem.blogspot.com.

and the address of the web sites are :
http://my.twinspace.etwinning.net/ecosystem?l=en,
and
http://hamrunlyceum.multiply.com
This was a very enjoyable experience. The professional relationship between the teacher, parents and students got better, and there is more mutual respect. Apart from this, all learnt from the fieldworks and from the comparisons with the Italian ecosystem.

On the 22nd February, a small ceremony was held at the Hamrun Lyceum, where the parents of the students who participated in the etwinning project were invited. The ceremony started when Ms Josephine Ebejer Grech (biology teacher) welcomed the parents and students and presented a power point presentation to explain what the project involved by referring to every single chapter. Then, the students made their own presentations to the audience, regarding the species that they studied, and the DVD was shown. The head master made a speech and presented a certificate to every student. Then, all the parents and students were invited for a small reception.

Later on that day, Ms Ebejer Grech flew to Brussels together with 7 other teachers and heads of schools, to attend the annual etwinning awards conference. Once there, Josephine was surprised to see that the video of her students was the Maltese video chosen to be viewed by 400 heads of schools, teachers and National Support Service people from all over Europe. There was great applause and it was evident that this work was highly appreciated. Many members had good comments about this project and many teachers from different countries asked to join this project.

Maltese species found in the studied ecosystem

2006-11-24T23:29:00.000-08:00

E-twinning Project

2006-11-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Title: Comparing and contrasting a studied Italian ecosystem with a Maltese ecosystem

Duration: One Scholastic Year
Short Description: The Maltese students will study a small ecosystem in their islands, and the Italian students will study a small ecosystem in their country. They will study a number of trees, plants, birds, insects and mammals and produce information cards including photos of different parts of the species and other information together with the biological name, Italian / Maltese name, and English name. This will be like a small dictionary with information about the most common species found in both ecosystems. Finally the students will write an account comparing and contrasting the two ecosystems and predicting reasons for the similarities and / or differences.

Language: EnglishAge of Students: 11 and 13 years old.

Who is involved: Teachers, parents and students

Tools used: Power point, word documents, video, e-mails.

Aims: To promote scientific research by students; to study an ecosystem in our country and compare and contrast it with a similar ecosystem in a different country.

To try to analyse and predict reasons for any similarities and differences encountered.

Work process: The students will be briefed by tutorials about native species that can be found in a determined ecosystem. Then the teachers will organise on location ecological studies in the ecosystem. The students will take photos and write down observations. At school, they will prepare the cards with photos of different parts of the organism; research information about the species studied and do annotated diagrams where applicable. The students will prepare cards for every species studied and the teacher will prepare the power point presentation with all the contents that the cards contain. After that this work is ready, they will go on location again and the teacher will film a short video including every student explaining to the televiewers what he learnt about the species concerned.

Student productions: Cards with information, photos and annotated diagrams,DVD including short filming & Power point presentation.

2006-11-22T08:33:00.000-08:00

Visit the e-twinning page

Some of the Maltese Students

2006-11-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

Ryan Saliba

2006-11-22T02:19:00.000-08:00

Stephen and Dion

2006-11-22T02:18:00.000-08:00

Matthew, Paul and Andre

2006-11-22T02:17:00.000-08:00

Dion Gauci, Stephen Mifsud and Ryan Darmanin

2006-11-22T02:14:00.000-08:00

Students from class 3.5

2006-11-22T02:12:00.000-08:00

Some students doing a group work while studying the fig tree

Group photo and list of students in e-twinning

2006-11-22T02:04:00.000-08:00

E-twinning students Maltese Group from Dun Guzepp Zammit Brighella Boys' Junior Lyceum Hamrun together with their teacher Mrs. Josephine Ebejer Grech

Andre Portelli
Matthew Mintoff
Paul Vella
Joseph Bellizzi
Andrew Portelli
Neville Micallef
Nico Caruana
Christian Borg
Daniel Agius
Steve Mifsud
George Vella Bardon
Kurt Bugeja
Dion Gauci
Ryan Saliba
Joshua Vella
Ryan Darmanin