Presentation of 18/02/2014

Today “Encendiendo bombillas” team composed by Elisa, Mónica, Laura Sanz and Javier, has exposed their work about environment. First they presented the index of all the contents, then the plan team in which each one explained their role in the team and the objectives they had. Then they started with their didactic sequence of science's classes.

They divided the sequence into 4 sessions. In the first one they divided the class in base teams using Jigsaw technique. Most of the groups (including mine) have worked with this technique because in my opinion is a good technique to improve the cooperative learning among students. They have to cooperate, respect each others and share their ideas so each one has an important role on the team. In the second session they made experts teams to share the information and organize a trip to the botanical garden. Then in the third session all the students go to the botanical garden where they have to look for some information and characteristics of some plants. I think this is an interesting idea because instead of having children sitting on their chairs and listening to the teacher, they can go there and see all the theory with their eyes, real plants and they will learn more (visual learning). At the end, in the forth session each base team has to design a notebook including photos and characteristics of the plants. This activity wasn't clear to my group; when we had to evaluate them and discuss about their presentation, we didn't know exactly what children have to do in this activity (I mean if they have to write about all the plants, only the plants that each group had been working on, etc.). The problem I find here is that if they do a notebook in groups, then which person will keep it? From my point of view, is better if every student make a notebook so that then each one can keep one and show it to their parents. After doing these activities the teacher will give a certificate to each student what I think is good because like that everyone receives a prize for the effort and the interest. They also mentioned that they will give 5 prizes to the prettiest notebook, more information, understand better the topic, most cooperative group and the one that have used the materials better. I agree with this but I don't agree with some of the prizes. For example they mentioned that one prize was a positive point on the subject but this (as it may be very important for them) should be for all the students not only for one of them and another prize is to present the lesson what I think that children won't like this. 

At the end of the work they included a self-evaluation for students to reflect about their work and think what things can be improve, this is important and good for them. They also included the bibliography with all the pages they have accessed.

To sum up I like this project because they have had interesting and dynamic ideas so children will learn a lot. The activity I liked the most was the trip to the botanical garden because it will be entertaining and I am sure that children will enjoy it and learn a lot.