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.
