Networking has become a substitute of real life for teens, so youngsters are often insensitive to environment. Students get addicted to computer games and need to be shown other application of technologies. Moreover, doctors warn of the sedentary life of youngsters , so the project will motivate participants to be more physically active by walking longer distances to observe birds, participating in orientation games. Moreover, many students involved in the Project come from humble backgrounds, with low motivation for learning and deprived of international cultural experience. With the view of 2015 Pisa results, which revealed that science, maths and reading skills of 14-15 year olds in most partnership countries were lower than average, these basic competences as well as language skills will get immediate attention from our educators. Therefore, the Project "Birds Without Borders" involving Lithuania, Romania,Turkey, in Portugal in Oporto in the other side of river Douroand, Slovenia aim at engaging learners with STEAM lessons by sharing best educational practices and developing them further. The Project will embrace a variety of activities under the common topic of birds, such as CLIL lessons, debates and discussions on environment, volunteering in zoos and pet shelters, observation of birds and field research at ornithological stations, carrying out campaigns to make bird-feeders and bird-houses, initiating clean ups of local areas. Students will update their knowledge of birds by reading online articles,creating own portfolio with photos of birds they see. Local observation of birds will be further complemented by bird watching during foreign exchanges. Partners will reveal to the guests the most amazing places of spotting birds in particular period of bird life to bring the best experience, like bird ringing in Ventes Ragas and seeing off storks in Lithuania, watching storks in their winter habitat in Portugal and other species in Oporto. Also spotting some predatory species in Transylvanian mountains of Romania and visiting National Park, Cheile Bicazului. Our bird lovers will also enjoy birds observations in Nature parks in Slovenia and Bafra Bird Heaven (Kızılırmak Deltası) in Turkey. Visiting zoos will be on our must-see list in all countries. Project activities will help develop the 21 century skills, such as Critical Thinking, Creativity, Citizenship, Collaboration, especially in the target age group of 11- 16 year olds. Students will discover their local birds and present them to partners, species will be compared. Regular bird observations will be carried out. Students will get into habit to look after birds by making and maintaining bird feeders and birdhouses. Project game „Birds GO" will encourage students to go outside, search for birds, take photos, identify them. During their ITC classes students will create their portfolio of local birds. Students will trace routes of migratory birds on maps during geography lessons. Younger students will create stories about birds in English to reveal different problems, and a performance will be staged and recorded during foreign exchange with students making drawings to illustrate our digital book "From the Bird's Eye ". Recordings will be included in a common project DVD . The role of birds in the history will be discovered , e.g. participants will tell history from the bird's perspective. CLIL lessons developed in cooperation by project teachers will encourage students to learn STEAM subjects. In physics students will find out about aerodynamics, while in chemistry - about chemical substances that pollute environment and affect birds. In maths lessons they will calculate waste created annually. Birds in museums will tell us history of the country as they witnessed it. Debates will make students think outside the box and come up with ways to solve the current environmental issues. Consequently, we will create a CLIL Brochure, Debates Brochure, Local Bird Posters of all countries involved , with festivals and dates linked to birds, as well as Birds Leaflets with local birds for participants. Among other products by this Partnership will be Birds Photo Album, Leaflet of proverbs related to birds in different languages, project website, bird observation forms for all seasons. Within the project numerous drawing and photo contests and exhibitions will be organized to help students best reveal their talents. As a result, students will become more responsible citizens, more empathic, intellectual people. On top of that, invaluable cultural experiences will be shared by collaborating with foreign partners on etwinning platform, by participating in foreign exchanges, by hosting foreign participants. Finally, a range of academic knowledge and competences as well as crucial life -long values will be acquired by Project participants in an engaging way. The Project in total will involve at least 500 participants and 1500 observers.
Networking has become a substitute of real life for teens, and youngsters are often insensitive to environment. Moreover, doctors warn of the sedentary life of youngsters , so the project motivated participants to be more physically active by walking longer distances to observe birds, by participating in orientation games. Many students involved in the Project come from humble backgrounds, with low motivation for learning and deprived of international cultural experience. 2015 Pisa results revealed that science, maths and reading skills of 14-15 year olds in most partnership countries were lower than average, so these basic competences as well as language skills should get immediate attention from project educators. Therefore, the Project "Birds Without Borders" involving Lithuania, Romania,Turkey, Portugal, Slovenia engaged learners with STEAM lessons by sharing best educational practices and developing them further. The Project embraced a variety of activities under the common topic of birds, such as CLIL lessons, debates and discussions on environment, volunteering in pet shelters, observation of birds and field research at ornithological stations, carrying out campaigns to make bird-feeders and bird-houses, initiating clean ups. Students updated knowledge of birds by reading articles, creating materials with photos of birds of their local area. Local observation of birds was complemented by bird watching during foreign exchanges. Partners took the guests the most amazing places to spot birds with ornithologists to bring the best experience. For example, in Lithuania participants visited bird ringing station at Ventes Ragas and saw off birds in autumn, in Portugal they visited a birds sanctuary with many rescued storks, a “hotel” for birds, where birds find peace in winter on the other side of river Douro in the city of Porto. Participants welcomed storks in Romanian villages, visited a special sanctuary for storks in Sen Semion, spotted some predatory bird species in Transylvanian mountains when visiting Cheile Bicazului. Our bird lovers also observed birds in nature parks in Slovenia in Skocjan regional park when following a nature trail , also they did bird ringing in Bafra Kızılırmak Deltası in Turkey. To extend knowledge on different bird species, visiting zoos was our must-see in all countries. Students carried put campaigns to save storks and raised awareness to protection of birds in their countries. Project activities helped develop the 21 century skills, such as Critical Thinking, Creativity, Citizenship, Collaboration. Students learnt about their local birds and presented them to partners. Bird observations were carried out outside and online. Students made bird feeders and birdhouses and fed birds. Project game „Birds GO" encouraged students to go outside, take photos of birds, identify them. Students wrote stories about birds to reveal different environmental problems, and a performance was staged by international mixed teams of “actors” and recorded during each foreign exchange. To illustrate these stories, students made drawings for digital books " Birds' Tales". Recordings were also included into the digital books. CLIL lessons were developed in cooperation by project teachers, which inspired students' interest in STEAM subjects. In physics students discovered aerodynamics rules, made “bird” rockets and tested them. In chemistry participants made bio plastic. Students traced routes of migratory birds during geography lessons. In maths lessons they calculated ratios related to storks in Romania. In museums students looked for birds that “witnessed” historical events. Debates on environmental issues made students think outside the box, they came up with ways to solve these problems by starting from themselves – students made a Memorandum of a Greeern Citizen during the last LTTA . Consequently, we created CLIL Lesson Plans, Debates Brochure, 5 Local Bird Posters and Birds Leaflets with typical local birds of each project country, Leaflets with Proverbs in 5 languages with important dates related to birds, Birds Photo Album with the best participants’ photos. This Partnership also created a project website, bird observation form. Within the project numerous drawing and photo contests were organized to help students best reveal their talents. As a result, students became more responsible citizens, more empathic, intellectual people. On top of that, invaluable cultural experiences was shared by collaborating on etwinning platform, by participating in foreign exchanges, by hosting foreign participants. Finally, a range of academic knowledge and competences as well as crucial life-long values were acquired by Project participants in an engaging way. The Project in total will involve at least 500 participants to different project activities and 1500 observers.