Our students spend too much time in school, where they mostly receive theoretical training. They are overburdened, under-motivated. German language, biology and complex science courses are located at the bottom of the subject ranking. With our project, we want to motivate our students to learn these subjects, and we want to encourage students to get new information in nature and other real life situations outside school. This project develops their key competences, mainly their cognitive, social and digital competencies. The project involves 15-16-year-old students, German language teachers, biology, geography, history, IT and forestry engineering teachers from three countries (Turkey, Italy and Hungary). The program also includes experts in nature conservation areas. The language of the project is German. During our joint work, our students will improve their foreign language competences, which are now indispensable at the labour market. The student's vocabulary will expand, mainly in the areas of nature, school, travel, culture, family, tourism, computing. Students learn about each other's culture, everyday school life and family life while taking part in excursions, participating in programs, studying geography and history of each other's countries. All this enhances their intercultural competencies. They will be more tolerant, will understand people living in other cultures better, break down prejudices and act against xenophobia. The theme of the project, "Endemic and Invasive Species" is very topical. Specialists are paying more and more attention to biodiversity and the protection of indigenous species. Our students will observe typical indigenous and invasive species in a given area of each country, identify their location by GPS and mark them on maps. They will get acquainted with concepts such as invasion plant species, invasive animal species. During the joint work, they will compare different areas of distribution, seek causes of the spread of invasive species, and the possibilities of fighting invasive species. With our project, we would like to draw people's attention to the endangered species. Our students will be making presentations, writing accounts, organizing photo exhibitions, designing posters, leaflets and creating a video film, which will all be shared on the schools' websites, on a joint project website and on the surface of eTwinning as well. The students will report about their experiences to their partner students, their teachers and their parents, and organize exhibitions in the city libraries. The theme, "Endemic and Invasive Species", can also be incorporated into the schools’ curricula, and the material compiled by students can be utilized in biology lessons. As a follow-up to the project, other school groups can also work on the field where new species can be defined. During the course of the program, students gain international relations that can lead to further joint project work. Teachers will also benefit from the project, can learn new methods, develop linguistic and digital competencies, and build long-term relationships with the partner schools.
In our project called “the wonderful nature - endemic and invasive species“ we worked on a theme that proved both current and interesting to our students. This project aimed to motivate students to study the less popular science subjects. We wanted to make sure that the students receive new information in different situations outside the classroom, in the nature. They were supposed to study their environment according to the endemic and invasive species, to impart the importance of the knowledge of biological diversity, and to raise people’s attention to protect the native animal and plant species. Our project also aimed at improving the key competence of the participants (mainly social, intercultural, linguistic and IT) as well as at developing the acquisition of foreign languages. In Hungary the participants got acquainted with concepts such as invasive, neophytes, and neozoen. They researched 5 typically native and 5 invasive plants along the river Drava. The students worked in groups: with the help of GPS coordinates they had to mark the location of the plants they learned about. They were also supposed to complete some measurements (e.g. determining tree perimeters), then they had to read the coordinates into a computer program, and to create a card about the occurence of the observed species. They presented their experience in the form of an exhibit with photographs, brochures, posters to the other students of our school. In the Danube-Drava National Park they learned about typical Hungarian animal species and the native species of the river Drava. In Italy, the focus of the observations was on the the living area of the flamingoes (Priolo – saltworks) and on the native and the invasive plant- and animal species (corkwood forest in Niscemi). The participants completed a four language glossary to the topic of nature and videos and presentations were also done about the observed endemic and invasive species, which were later evaluated by a jury. In Turkey the students researched the endemic animal and plant species of the Taurus Mountains. They completed an exhibit in the city center, where they presented their project and managed to raise the locals’ attention to the consequences of urbanization and environmental pollution. They also finished their work on exhibition materials, brochures, T-shirts that they were wearing while decorating bicycles, thus they raised local inhabitants’ attention to the environmentally friendly way of traveling. The project work in all three countries was completed through cultural and touristic programs that helped the participants to get to know the life, the culture and the traditions of the guest country. They were allowed to examine the everyday life of school and family in the partner countries that developed their intercultural competence. The language of communication was German. The participants improved their foreign language skills via common work, a fact that nowadays for a good workplace is deemed indispensable. During the cooperation, presentations, test exercises in the topic of “endemic animal and plant species“ were completed, which together with the videos done in Sicily could be utilized in Biology classes. The students developed tests, videos about their experience that show the culture and the traditions of the partner countries, which could potentially be used in various classes later on (German, Geography, and Classroom Teacher’s class). The results of the project were shared on the Internet, on the websites of the schools, on a common project website (www.diewunderbarenatur.com) and also on e-Twining. Presentations and exhibits were organized for the classmates, teachers, parents as well as for the local residents of the cities.