FIELD TRIP : "HOW TO MAKE A GREEN TRIP?" (I)

~GOOD PRACTICE EXAMPLE~

ARGUMENT

The main challenge of our world today is to learn living together and in harmony with our environment on a planet where resources and space are limited. To meet this challenge it is important to discuss a global vision of the “world” in which we want to live thinking in the long-term and acting responsibly. A teaching method that could be described as a “big experience” or “big simulation” is the field trip. A nature walk with a treasure hunt or a visit to a factory is an experience; a trip to a museum that depicts historical events and artifacts is a simulation - one is not actually going back in history.

Field trips have some value simply because they provide variety in the learning environment. Sometimes the teacher and students need to get out of the classroom just to get a broader perspective of education. For example, one of the best ways to stimulate writing in children is to go for a walk and then ask the students to write a description of the surroundings.

The activity “ How to make a green trip” had two aims:

• to promote the local identity of the town through the benefit of a life experience, through cooperation , and cultural dialogue about the local values.
• to practice the pedagogical approaches which were studied along the first year of the project.

The activity took place in our school during the European Day of Modern Languages. This gave us the opportunity to integrate this activity into an international and intercultural context. This outdoor educational activity called “ How to make a green trip?” is a natural following of the work session “ How green are you?” that took place in Poland. In this activity students were stimulated to look into the ecological problems of the area they live in. They also had to present a legend, a myth or a story which emphasizes the cooperation between man and nature . During the trip, one of the aims was the creation of a story which combined both fantastic elements and real ecological problems of the area.

The activities held on the course of the day followed the pattern of a “learning trip” which had the following route: Pecica – Bezdin - Pecica. The activities had to fulfill the four main aims of the Comenius project which has the following theme: “European Journey through Legends”:

• O1. Understanding cultural diversity from schools and living life;
• O2. Developing the natural gifted/skills of pupils
• O3. Improving teaching methods and evaluation methods through ICT
• O4. Improving the pupils’ ability to preserve or enhance the natural environment.

To reach the first objective O1 the organization and accomplishment of some of the socialization activities had as a purpose the development of tolerance for :

• age diversity - mixed teams were created from students of different ages( 6th grade and 11th grade)
• language, ethnical diversity - specific activities had a contribution to strengthen the relationships through students of different ethnics: Romanians, Hungarians, Romany, Germans, Slovakians
• historical diversity - at the two sessions from the Cultural House and Momac fountain different aspects of the local history have been presented
• religious diversity - during the trip different religious sights from the town of Pecica were presented.

The first objective O1 also had the aim to make students aware of the importance of the local cultural and historical legacy. Thus a series of work sessions presented customs and traditions connected to the Momac fountain, the former bathing-establishment, the traditional local gate and the Romanian folk costumes and dancing. Romanian legends, myths and stories were emphasized through the three plays which had the following themes: ”the Water spirit, the Forest spirit and the Faith spirit”.

The second objective O2 was fulfilled through the discussion topics regarding

• the atractivity of school enhancement- by organizing this trip as an interdisciplinary activity, which is part of the curriculum as a new format of the counseling hour.
• the involvement of parents in the life of the school by preparing food for the students who were going to cook traditional Romania food; and that of the local communities such as the director of the Cultural House, news staff, clerical staff, town hall staff, during the activities students were involved in
• students’ creativity was encouraged through drawing expositions, posters in the nature.

To accomplish the third objective O3 it was used an interactive approach; the necessary material support were prepared ahead, by using IT&C materials. The dynamic of the lesson was given by the combination of the three pedagogical approaches studied along the first year of the project: learning through drama, the usage of ICT tools and materials and outdoor education.

These activities led to a better communication both horizontally (student-student; teacher- teacher) and vertically (student-teacher; student- local community) between all the participants to the learning trip. The activities related to the 4th objective O4 developed the students and teachers’ conservation and environmental protection skills. Outdoor exercises led to the acknowledgement of some cleanliness and environmental esthetics problems. The beauty of the places they have visited that day made all of the participants desire to play an active part in the conservation of the natural environment.

THE EVALUATION OF THE LEARNING TRIP:

If we take into account what Schaub and Zenke’s “Pedagogy Dictionary” is saying about evaluation, its definition would be: “the collecting, good use and learning of the information resulting from the learning process”. Both the learning process and the revision takes place in nature.

The revision is considered a way through which the teacher checks the student’s level of knowledge and the development of skills tested through the usage of different methods suitable to the “target goal”. The evaluation methods can be classified in :

• Traditional evaluation methods ( classic)
• Alternative evaluation methods (modern)

Due to the fact that the learning process used alternative learning techniques such as outdoor education, dramatization, and IT&C skills, it is obvious that the evaluation also has to use alternative methods. Thus the following evaluation methods were used:

• Small rewards ( candies, biscuits, pens, chestnuts, leaves) are given as prizes to students who answer correctly at the frontal evaluation: if a member of a team gives the wrong answer or if he doesn’t know the correct one , the team has to give back one of the prizes they have previously won. A1& A2 are evaluated this way.
• The working sheet: which evaluates the cooperation, investigation and examination, spatial orientation skills
• The map: through it one can verify the discovery of the marked spot on the map, fact which assumes the existence of some orientation skills and a good knowledge of the town
• Outdoor exposition: which seeks the development of artistic, practical and linguistic skills
• Telling/acting a story: which as an aim the development of acting skills and also the good cooperation among the members of the community
• Expectation sheet - it is also an evaluation method , both for the beginning and ending of the activities which take place during the entire day. At the end of the day each student is asked to read a note with expectations which was written in the morning. Thus the pupils understand that their expectations were outshined by reality, which tells the teachers that the trip was a success.
• The special copy-book - aims to revise individually the whole activity unfolded through this learning trip.
• The portfolio of the trip: it’s a tool which evaluates the teachers involved in this activity. This portfolio contains:

the plan of the trip

essays about the learning methods applied along the trip

expectations sheet

photos, posters, collages made by children

an interview

the special copy-book

the maps

the sheet for the outdoor activity

the booklet of the activity

other materials

It must be emphasized that if we take each activity as a single unit as we did in the previous presentations, we no longer have a coherent, homogeneous and consensual process. At this moment the role of the teacher steps in- who is above all a modeler, and then an evaluator – one who chooses the proper evaluation methods for each didactic situation and one who makes everything possible to create a coherent, homogeneous and consensual evaluation system.

(~The End of part I~)

written by Camy, Simo and Ioana