Projects

You have to take into account that the following texts only give a brief overview of the students' project works. In case you want to cooperate with them, please contact the respective students and ask them for the complete project works. They will be more than happy to cooperate with you.

Projects in Progress

Students of all the COMENIUS partnerschools involved have been working on developing project themes which they want to exchange in magazines as we did in the COMENIUS NEWS, second edition and on their respective Web Sites. During the following time all students and teachers involved work on this material to find a common basis for our project work (see: Guideline to Projects - Guideline for European Educational Projects - Step Four). We did not fix a closing date but after a time of off-line preparations and planning the real on-line project work will begin in February/March 1999.

You may get into contact with students on the "mIRC" (Internet Relay Chat ) Server. They have installed an offical COMENIUS chat channel : #comenius

Guideline to Projects

STEP BY STEP

Guideline for European Educational Projects

STEP ONE defining the work group within the school
STEP TWO discovering a topic
STEP THREE structuring the project
STEP FOUR realization of the plan
STEP FIVE evaluation

STEP ONE
defining the work group within the school

1. discussing the project at your school

with the headmistress/headmaster
with the relevant school bodies, committees, etc.
with your departmental colleagues

2. selection of the group of pupils

a form or course or mixture of age/ form / club
the pupils' age
proportion of female and male pupils
number of participating pupils

3. finding one or more groups in other European countries

utilizing existing
- partnerships between schools
- town or county or area partnerships
COMENIUS
private connections

STEP TWO
discovering a topic

1. topics chosen by your group

pupils' motivation
pupils have ideas of their own
pupils explain their ideas
if necessary: the teacher puts forward her/his ideas
each pupil writes down three topics she/he finds most interesting
voting three most popular topics
short description of the projects

2. topics chosen by the partnered group

same procedure as in your group
comparison of the topics suggested
vote on a common topic
if no accord is reached: renewed discussion and decision-making in both groups

3. suggestions

everyday life
special regional themes
cultural heritage
current political, economic, ecological affairs
Europe and the citizen

STEP THREE
structuring the project

1. time

overall duration
periods of work

2. interaction

in your lessons
interdisciplinary work
extracurricular activities

3. working in small teams

assigning responsibilities
forming the presentation of results

4. defining the roles

for the teacher
for the pupils
for the other groups

5. cooperation

departmental colleagues
experts, parents

6. language

native language
language of partner school
native and foreign language

7. cost

of planned excursions
of books, photocopies, photographies, etc.

8. documentation

books, magazines, videos, etc.

STEP FOUR
realization of the plan

1. independent work in small teams

group meets at regular intervals
group draws up its own time schedule
assignation of tasks to members of the group
collecting and screening the material gathered
designing questionnaires
carrying out the interviews
contact with the small team in the other country

2. discussions at one school during the realization

the small groups present their work as far as it is progressed
brainstorming
mutual help and exchange of ideas
assistance by teacher
final decision about the presentation of the project

3. presentation of results in the national group

results of the small groups are discussed
suggestions for improvement

4. exchange of results between participating countries

comparison and evaluation of results
presentation of the overall results at your school

STEP FIVE
evaluation

1. designing a questionnaire

by the national group of pupils
by bi- or multilateral teams
by the cooperating teachers
all together

2. discussion of the interpretation of the results

criticism
suggestions for improvement
developing ideas for a new project

Manual for COMENIUS Projects

Topics:

Students select suitable topics and divide them into sub-topics. Teachers support and supervise them. For the planning process, teachers and students check the questions whether they need to be refined to meet the aims and objectives of the project work.
The best option is that the topics are embedded in the curriculum as part of the course work. So students do not have to work on the topics in extra-curricular workshops. Teachers can supervise their students and a continuity of the project work is guaranteed.
If the topic does not fit the curriculum of one of the partnerschools and they cannot participate, they do not have to give reasons.
Other courses can join this project (interdisciplinary project work at school).
Teachers. and students. exchange their future plans with their partnerschools. They probably work on the basis of an agreement they made at their study meeting.

Time Frame

Frequency of Exchange

Teachers define the project ouline.

To ensure that everything is going off smoothly they arrange the following:

When do they start their project work?

When do they want to end their project work? They set deadlines.

When do the lessons of the courses take place?

When can the students use the computer rooms, modems, etc? Do students have a free access to computer search facilities and sending emails?

When is an exchange of information - communication between all participating courses / students possible?

How often do they want to exchange their information (once a week?)

What other groups / subjects of the partnerschoois want to join the project groups (interdisciplinary project work among all partnerschools.)?

How can the teachers find a balance between their normal lessons. and their project - i.e. do the students. work on the project all the time or do they partly work on the project and partly attend normal lessons?

How can the project work be valued as part of the course work?

Computerwork and email

It is well and good being able to send off emails willy-nilly, but if you cannot reply to them, then correspondence is going to be one-sided.
What do I do if the partnercourse is demotivated, because they get no response?
Using the Internet, teachers should be on the same wavelength.
Teachers, experienced users and novices alike, know the rules of exchange engagement which form the basis of email communication.

Wordprocessinq Formats

Teachers exchange their information right at the beginning of the project work by email to verify that each partner receives the message - sending emails and replying to emails.
Teachers have all the recipients' addresses.
Provisional results are sent to all email addresses. So all schools and participants are informed.

Project Work

Students form groups in their respective courses.
All project groups, students and teachers alike, can send photos and videoclips to the partner groups. So they are not an anonymous groups of persons any longer. As long as we cannot use the video conference as a means of communication we should find ways how to introduce ourselves.
Students collect ideas where to find more information about the topic they want to work on (mind-mapping, building a framework (first exchange of information). Students exchange their information once a week. They formulate a hypothesis what they intend to find out, to prove or disprove.
They define the parameters. language, location, time period, methods of investigation, sources, target group.
Students specify their project work.
Students collect ideas and data - they find information:

libraries: encyclopedia, books, daily newspapers, magazines, multimedia information (CD-ROMs - multimedia encyclopedia, eg. Hutchinson, Encarta, Webster)

Internet: the Web sites

Students devise their methods of investigation to collect data:

simple observation

questionnaire

survey

interview

time sampling

event sampling

Students take photos and/or produce video films.

Students exchange their materials, data and information constantly (they exchange texts and illustrations, Internet addresses, Web sites) so they can work on the same materials.

Students bring their materials, data and information to the course

All project groups have to find their own way and balance between independent project work and cooperation
Students work on these materials with their partners.
Students exchange their provisional results regularly. They keep a log book. Teachers keep an eye on the schedule and check the progress of the project work once a week I fortnight. Approaches can be refined. The project work is process-oriented rather than product-oriented.

End Product

Students think of appropriate ways of presenting their results.
Students can take photos to underpin their findings and arguments.
Students exchange their results.
Students present their results in class. Students document their results.

in-school:

They can document their projects in their own doosiers.

They can document their projects in the school magazine.

They can document their projects in on the Web.

trans-school:

Students and teachers of the respective partnerschools hold a forum and decide what shall be documented in a trans-school documentation.

All project work can be documented by photos and video clips.

Project - Topic:

Project - Subtopic(s):

Description of the Project:

Type of Action:

Target Group:

Aims of the Project and the Results Expected:

The overall aims of the project are as follows:

Detailled Description of the Project:

Evaluation:

SCHEME FOR COMENIUS PROJECT

names of participating teachers:		schools:
theme(s)		compulsory: YES: NO:
specification:
goals and research questions	goal: main question: goal: sub-question:
research methods
participating subjects
number of students students	number of male students	total number of
	number of female students
age and grade of students	age:	grade:
time / period / duration
contact persons	mail address:	fax address:
remarks