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.
