A group of eight secondary schools from different corners of the European continent (RO, GR, IT, LT, PL, PT, TR) identified the same needs and requested pedagogical imput toward a better and more comprehensive ornithological education toward their students. As emerged from a need analysis realised before setting up a partnership, most of the secondary students either are not capable to enumerate ten feral species of birds living in their area or are making big mistakes concerning their names/species when spotting a bird in a certain habitat. To address these needs, secondary students have in the field of ornithological knowledge, a partnership was setup, between eight European schools, to work together in a strategic project in which ornithological education is promoted among students in parallel with the creation of some intellectual outputs in a form of a bird atlas (either in English or in several mother tongues of the partners: RO, GR, PL) which will foster the same needs for other European schools who share the same needs and can use the project's end products, made available on different channels in a form of an open educational resource. Two SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES were defined to meet the expressed needs: Ob1. Increasing bird identification competencies among a group of 800 students who will be capable, until June 2022, to recognize in different habitats at least 60 feral avian species existing in the partner schools’ regions. Ob2. Creating, until May 2022, a bird atlas having at least 430 pages, as an open education resource, in four languages, containing the 200 most specific bird species found in different corners of Europe, atlas intended to be used as a pedagogical auxiliary both in the partner schools and in other relevant secondary schools to foster the ornithological education among secondary students during the biology classes. To meet the expectations of the partnership, outdoor activities will be organized in each partner school, with groups of students, in order to study, identify and recognise different feral avian species in their specific habitats. The outdoor activities are planned to be organized with at least 100 students in each school, with small number of students in a single birding activity, to minimise the human interference with the bird populations and to minimise the disturbance and nuisance a group of humans can cause to wild life. The activities will be organized in different habitats to allow diversity and maximise the chances of each participating student to identify and recognise at lest 60 avian species, a number which covers the great majority of a bird population in a certain area, ensuring a relevant ornithological knowledge at the end of the project. During the outdoor activities with the students, photography sessions will be organized by each partner in order to collect relevant photos of the local birds, based on a previously agreed bird list, photographs which will be centralized in a European bird atlas depicting/describing, in total, at least 200 bird species. The avian species presented in the bird atlas (edited in English and translated into RO, GR, PL), published both as printed book and eBook, will be chosen form a European bird database, created at the beginning of the project. Each partner will choose at least 25 bird species to be photographed during the outdoor activities (in their natural habitats), to be described after a research session, and to be inserted in the bird atlas in such a way that it covers both common species and bird specific only to a certain region. In order to increase the knowledge of the participating teachers, in this specific field of biology, two short term joint staff training sessions are envisaged, distanced one year apart, with the participation of teachers from each partner, in order to ensure the necessary knowledge both for taking proper photographs, to identify certain bird species, to foresee the presence of certain species in specific habitats, to know basic elements about bird research focusing on bird descriptions, measuring and ringing activities. The main impact on the participating teachers and participating students will be an increased knowledge about different bird species, the connection between birds and habitats, the human influence on the environment and how this is affecting birds' life. Bird observation and recognition skills are fostered during outdoor activities. The elaboration of the foreseen intellectual outputs is expected to produce changes in the way biology is taught in the participating schools and in the schools targeted by the dissemination strategy of the partners, ensuring a diversification of the pedagogical auxiliaries the schools are using. The availability of the final products in eBook form is a major advantage allowing them to be posted on multiple online sources and to be reached by a large number of schools capable of using them during their pedagogical approaches.
By implementing the project the requirements of two specific objectives were met: Ob 1. Increasing bird identification competencies among a group of 800 students who will be capable, until June 2022, to recognize in different habitats at least 60 feral avian species existing in the partner schools’ regions. Ob2. Creating, until May 2022, a bird atlas having at least 430 pages, as an open education resource, in four languages, containing the 200 most specific bird species found in different corners of Europe, atlas intended to be used as a pedagogical auxiliary both in the partner schools and in other relevant secondary schools to foster the ornithological education among secondary students during the biology classes.
The lack of specific knowledge in the field of natural sciences, triggered a partnership among 8 European schools, sharing the same interests and needs: the need to foster among the students, the ornithological education, the cross curricular approaches which let the students understand the fragile balance in the environment between different influences, our role as humans in this fragile ecosystem we are surrounded by and the need to get aware of our role to preserve the nature, with all its beauties and to develop knowledge in the field of ornithology, the Cinderela of the Biology classes. The outdoor activities with the students or the research activities done by some professionals who implemented this project, allowed the team, reunited around the project idea, to gather valuable graphic information, in a form of a great collection of photographs, which, after a certain research stage, for a collection of birds, stud at the foundation of a pedagogical tool, in a form of a richly illustrated bird atlas, which can further foster the education of the students in this area of the natural sciences.