Curriculum Applications

There are three types of projects in iEARN

On-going projects which run year after year continuously

Short term - projects with a stated start and end date

Learning Circles A learning Circle is made up of a team of 6-8 teachers and their classes joined in the virtual space of an electronic classroom. The groups remain together over a 3-4 month period working on projects drawn from the curriculum of each of the classrooms organized around a selected theme. At the end of the period the group collects and publishes its work. View a PowerPoint Presentation

All projects in iEARN are initiated and designed by teachers. As part of iEARN's mission to make a difference to the quality of life on our planet, teachers select projects related to local issues, look at how the project matches their curriculum needs and identify how they can integrate the project into their classroom. Because each classroom and school environment is different, one iEARN project will look different in each participating classroom where it is integrated as teachers adapt them based on their students needs and resources available to them.

There are, however, several support networks open to teachers who are beginning to match projects to their curriculum.

• Teachers' Lounge here you can communicate with teachers in the network to share your experiences and ask questions to teachers who have been using collaborative projects as part of their classroom for some time.
• Online Professional Development Courses these subject specific online courses are facilitated by iEARN teachers/facilitators and are designed to help teachers select and integrate a project into their classroom.
• Hands- On workshops workshops are participant driven with the goal of enabling educators to begin working on projects and developing a support network in your school.

Through iEARN's unique approach to Project-Based Learning (Slide Show) young people acquire skills in critical thinking, and cross-cultural awareness while connecting their learning to real world issues, making learning challenging and enjoyable!

FOR MORE PBL RESOURCES

Donna Mandella, a Science teacher at Walter G. O'Connell High School, Long Island, USA shares her initial thoughts as she selected an iEARN project:

'If my students take anything with them through life it is that they need to inquire about the world they are part of and be interested in their impact on the world and it on them. [S]tudents need to apply their scientific skills throughout any problem they attempt to solve in Biology or in their own lives. Throughout the project students will be incorporating problem solving skills and academic skills such as, reading, writing, articulation, mathematical reasoning, cooperative people skills and much more. One of the advantages to Project Based Learning is that all these skills are part of the activities and truly the student doesn't feel that learning is forced.'

Visit your subject area below to see iEARN projects work in different classroom and school environments.

iEARN in Social Studies:

Janet Cook, iEARN Online course facilitator provides some questions to help you plan a Social Studies project in your classroom

1. How do you envision using iEARN projects in your social studies curriculum?
2. How do you define social studies?
3. What types of topics are covered in your social studies curriculum?
4. Do you feel that you can integrate iEARN just in social studies or are there other cross-curricular applications you want to include (emphasis on data interpretation, writing, art, etc.)?
5. What kind of projects do you feel would be best for you (short term (one month), year-long, ongoing)?
6. What type of project(s) are you looking to become involved? There are projects that deal with gathering and sharing factual information, opinions, local folklore, geography of areas, current events and their ramifications, social issues, etc. In what type of project(s) are you looking to become involved?

Some teachers' reflections:

• Ynez Walker, Horowhenua Learning Centre, New Zealand. 'iEARN projects in our social studies curriculum. Social studies for our vocational purposes involves, cultural values, respect, morals, history and social issues which come from a study of: 1. how people interact with other people, groups (interest, ethnicity etc), communication styles, prejudice. 2. how people interact with their environment (geography and human impacts on planet earth). 3. how people are affected economically by where they live, their work, their social class and their access to education, health and welfare. Therefore social studies, geography, history and economics can be taught in an integrated way through a unit of study. Short one month iEARN projects, would be best for us as our units are usually a month duration. There are many possible projects which could be useful for our students to become participants. However, we have already identified an interest area for the interim, to reduce intolerance and work towards building better understanding between cultures. My class [is] very keen to participate in the Holocaust/Genocide Project. Other possible projects would be those that require gathering information about different destinations around the world to visit, sharing own country knowledge and current world events and social issues..'.

• Patricia Moses, McMilliam Magnet Center, Nebraska, USA. 'Child Labor Project [best matches my curriculum]... Our 7th grade curriculum covers the East Hemisphere. My main goal is to increase awareness of this issue among my students. Over the last two years I have been adding a lot of lessons that deal with economics and environmental issues not to mention human rights. I feel the Child Labor project will allow my students to become aware of a major issue affecting young people their age or younger. I have approximately 40 students that will be involved in this class project. I am allotted approximately 160 minutes a month in a computer lab per month. For the remainder of this academic year, I will devote these periods to studying the issue of child labor in our regions of study including Africa, Asia, and Russia and its neighbors. My time line is to start with...an orientation to iEARN and the Child Labor Project. I will utilize some of the postings found on the Child Labor forum to acquaint my students with issues. I hope to have my students brainstorm a project such as a "proclamation on child labor" from our mayor. I like the idea of helping to fund a school or perhaps materials to a classroom in need.

View the list of Social Studies projects

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iEARN in Geography:

As all iEARN projects have cross-cultural aspects there are many projects you can select which can match your geography curriculum. Christine Kolstoe, a K-12 educator at Edmonds Cyberschool, Washington State, USA shares her Social Studies project work:

• 'We are substituting the Local History Project to the Washington History lessons: the goal here is to learn our personal heritage through family, friends, neighbours and the personal research on local buildings and geography. The personal approach allows for a personal connection with the past and the environment where we live and the students in the class are truly taken by it. The technology used is not only the computer, but also simple tools like a tape recorder to record interviews as well as cameras (regular or digital) to record people and places that they learn more about. This will all come together in a webpage that will display some of the findings. Some discoveries will be recording in more traditional media such as a family heritage album, a map with the places that were visited and some family heirlooms that were seen and through which we learn more about the past through a personal connection. We have also planned a visit to the Washington History Museum. These activities will replace the traditional "textbook approach" on learning about our state.

View the list of projects

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iEARN in Math:

Edward Tetteh, a secondary school teacher at the Accra Academy in Ghana explains how the issue of unemployment, important to students in Ghana, is a part of his Math online project:

• 'Students are very much aware of the unemployment problems their country is facing which makes some of them feel like stopping school to learn some trade as that can, at least, make themselves self-employed. It is always great to let students be aware of such problems and allow them to think of how the problem could be tackled by themselves. For instance, let students think of "How do I make myself employable after school?". "How can I apply my subject, (Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology....) outside the classroom?" etc. This will move them outside the rigid classroom situation to a more practical/project-based outlook.'

Below is an example of a classroom activity you can use as part of a Math online project:

• Classroom Activity: Students in a 6th grade math class are learning about Statistics. Their assignment is to come up with a research project in which they gather and compile date related to a community issue and then report on their Statistical findings.

iEARN in Science:

Some teachers reflect on how Science projects relate to local issues and their curriculum needs:

• The environmental issue which most readily fits into my curriculum is the use of solar energy as an alternative to cooking with environmentally unfriendly materials. - Rowena Gerber, Miami County Day school, Florida, USA. Visit the Solar Cooking Project and see how the project has been aligned to state standards.

• 'The iEARN Wetland and Waterways project is relevant in that it is very much in line with the Ugandan situation. Uganda is a country where the average temperatures hardly go beyond 28 degrees Celsius. And for 99% of the time of the year, there is no need for air conditioning of heating in our houses. The Ugandan style of [eating] is that if you want to cook a meal, you go down the garden and [collect] what to prepare for lunch. These good conditions though are starting to change. It is feared this is because of the encroaching on the wetlands. As the future leaders, our students need to be fully aware of which factors affect these very important Natural resources. The students will also be able to integrate their chemistry (water quality testing) and Geography(factors behind the use of wetlands ) into the activities which will make them motivated. And there is a river in the vicinity that we shall study. - Lawrence Ssenkubuge, Secondary school teacher, Kings College Budo, Uganda

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iEARN in Creative Writing:

Teachers share why online projects can help students writing, reading and editing skills:

• '...Lewin is of the most interest to me. I..like that this project accepts any topic as well as any [prose]. Feedback is so important to elementary school children. I think that I will try this project with one of the ESL boys that I tutor. - Lynn Arajuo, Elementary School teacher, Miami County Day School, Florida, USA
• 'The Laws of Life essays are a great place to emphasize the trait of voice, I think. Voice is an expression of sincerity and the Laws of Life essays are about the things that matter most to a person. - Patty Smith, Hamilton International Middle School, Washington State, USA
• Steve Olivio, Virtual High School. Massachusetts, shared how participating in a Learning Circles, project-based partnerships among a small number of schools located throughout the world allowed him to cover these Massachusetts learning standards
• #1. Agree on Rules for Discussion
• #2. Set Time Limits, Deadlines
• #3. Pose Questions, Listen to Ideas
• #5. Apply Standard English Conventions
• #6. Analyze Oral Dialects, Slang
• #19 Write With Clear Focus
• #20 Use Appropriate Genres
• #21 Content, Organization
• #22 Use Knowledge to Edit
• #23 Use Self-Generated Questions
• #24 Gather Information for Research
• #25 Assess Final Drafts

View the list of Creative and Language Arts projects

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iEARN in Language Acquisition:

There are many projects to chose from that you can integrate into your ESL/EFL classroom. Below are some comments and suggestions from ESL/EFL teachers

• Elena Rekichinskaja, Middle Secondary School teacher, Classical School #3, Novosibirsk, Russia '...PBL (project-based learning) is an essential part of teaching and learning process now. ...[T]his methodology will enhance my EFL teaching. It seems to me that project work captures better than any other activity the three principal elements of a communicative approach. These are 1. A concern for motivation, that is, how the learners relate to the task. 2.A concern for relevance, that is, how the learners relate to the subject areas. 3.A concern for educational values, that is, how the curriculum relates to the general educational development of the learner. It helps our learners enjoy learning ! We understand that positive motivation is the key to successful learning and project work is particularly useful as a means of generating this positive motivation.

• Inga Savicka, High school teacher, Smiltene Gymnasium, Latvia. 'If we work with projects[my students] feel closer to real life. They meet complex, real -world problems. It makes them think over the problem and find a solution. They have to plan, think critically, cooperate. PBL gives students skills they need later in their lives. It is learning through doing. I like project work, too, because there we can integrate different subjects. Right now we are doing a project about English speaking countries. Students can use their knowledge in geography, history, computer skills. They can even choose how they present the country they have chosen. That can be a computer presentation, a theatre, a model, a poster, etc. I can say that only in[these types of] projects can we see how creative our students can be.

Here are some projects commonly used in ESL classrooms.

• Laws of Life
• Folk Tales
• Local History
• Role of Women in Family and Society
• Children's Rights through Artwork
• New Millennium Card Project
• Me and My Pet
• Friends and Flags
• Aspects of Love
• The World of Harry Potter
• A Day in the Life

Here is an example of a language classroom activity:

Classroom Activity: Students are studying to learn Spanish.

Network Activity: The class joins Latina forum (Newsgroup: apc.iearn.latina) a forum for current projects and discussion among educators and young people who would like to develop collaborative projects to contribute to the the health and welfare of the planet and its peoples using Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, or other Latin-based languages. Over the course of the year, the class participates in projects and discussions on a number of issues, including the environment, math, history and traditions of different countries, literary expressions, water, mathematics, and sports, among others.

Visit the project list to review all the projects you can select from.

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iEARN in Art:

Below is an example of a how Margaret Mahoney, a Middle/Secondary School Art teacher in the United States used the Folk Tales Project in her classroom:

AMERICAN FOLK TALE PROJECT

Library Visit (one class period)

1. Spend one class period in the library doing research on American folk tales. By the end of the class each student will have selected a folk tale to use for the project.
2. Ask two students from each class to be responsible for photocopying the stories so that each student has their own copy of the selected folk tale.

Read and Write Summaries (one to two class periods)

Students will spend a class period silently reading their folk tales and will begin writing a summary of the tale. A second class period will be devoted to writing the summaries. The typing of the summaries will be assigned for homework. These should be done on computer and saved to disc.

Preliminary Drawing (one to two class periods)

After writing the summary each student will select a significant scene from their folk tales to illustrate. The final illustrations will be done in collage on 18"x22"tag board. Before they start their collage, however, each student will complete a preliminary drawing in their sketchbook.

Repeating Border Design (part of one class period)

Each student will decide on an appropriate repeating symbol from the story to use as a border design. For example in a story about a fisherman an appropriate border design could be a repeating fish motif. A sketch of the border design should be drawn in the student's sketchbook.

Collage (eight class periods)

After a review of collage techniques, each student will be supplied with a piece of tag board to begin their collage illustration according to the following steps:

1. sketch out the scene in pencil on the tag board
2. using paint fill in the background
3. add major parts using any of the desired collage materials (see the list of materials below)
4. work in the details with marking pens
5. add the borders design first by painting the background and then with collage materials

Attach Summary (part of one class period)

• Attach a typed copy of the summary to the back of the collage. Add any pertinent information, for example the name and location of the Native American tribe, if it is a Native American story.
• Send Photos and Text Electronically send the digital photos and folk tale summaries to the Global Arts Folk Tale web site. This can be done by students who are quite comfortable using computers, but it should be done with the supervision of a teacher.

Presentation of the Folk Tale Project

Groups of students may present their folk tales and collage illustrations to Lower School classes or to the Middle School at an assembly program.

Exhibit of Folk Tale Project

Exhibit the collages and story summaries in the assembly hall or in the main office building. Include in the exhibit a description of the Global Art Folk tale Project and the web site. Investigate other exhibit areas, e.g. Pediatric ward of a local hospital, the local public library. See about getting an article in the newspaper, both the school newspaper and local newspaper.

Collage Materials List: paint, markers, fabric, glitter, sequins, shells, dried flowers and leaves, sand, any other small found objects

- Margaret Mahoney, Miami County Day School, Florida, USA

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Matching Your Curriculum Objectives to an iEARN Project

As you look at iEARN projects you are interested in, you may find this exercise helpful in identifying the underlying objectives of the project. The outline was created by Eliane Metni, iEARN teacher and country coordinator based on the six developmental domains explored in the book 'Themes' edited by Marjorie J. Kostelnik, Michigan State University. Below you will find links to:

• SAMPLE MATCHING EXERCISES
• BLANK EXERCISE FORM

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