1. Project “Hello, Spring!” http://tere.kevad.edu.ee Terje Tuisk, Janika Ruusmaa I*EARN Estonia

2. July 12th 2001Terje Tuisk & Janika RuusmaaAfrica Connects, Cape Town Why Spring?  The arrival of the Spring is very special for Nordic people –Days get longer, there is more sunshine and light –Migratory birds that left us in the Autumn are coming back from South –Snow is melting, nature is awakening and first flowers appear

3. July 12th 2001Terje Tuisk & Janika RuusmaaAfrica Connects, Cape Town Basic idea & main goals  Fenological observations of the arrival and development of the Spring in the nature  Goals: –Learn basic nature-observation skills –Learn more about common plant, bird and animal species living around us –Integration of different subjects –Practice the teamwork and collaboration with students from other schools –Create database of fenological data gathered by students

4. July 12th 2001Terje Tuisk & Janika RuusmaaAfrica Connects, Cape Town Course of the project I  Participants – teachers with their 1-7 grade students from nearly 50 schools –Groups consisted from 3 to 35 students  Course of the project –Indicator species – the first messengers of the Spring –Students had to look for these species and enter the date when they noticed it for the first time in their neighbourhood. –Data where entered through on-line form directly to database and results appeared instantly to the web.

5. July 12th 2001Terje Tuisk & Janika RuusmaaAfrica Connects, Cape Town Course of the project II  Additional activities – –Poems, drawings and web-creation – created cooperation between different teachers  E-mail list for the project where were sent: –Announcements of the course of the project –Descriptions of the species as their time approached –Students poetry –Students and organizers personal notes about what they have seen in the nature –Also teachers sent their messages if they had some kind of problems that they thought might interest others

6. July 12th 2001Terje Tuisk & Janika RuusmaaAfrica Connects, Cape Town Feedback & plans for the future  General feedback was very positive – –students and even teachers and parents learned a lot about Spring and nature, –students had possibility to practice teamwork what is not very common in our ed.system, –it was good that students were able to follow other students work and results

7. July 12th 2001Terje Tuisk & Janika RuusmaaAfrica Connects, Cape Town Plans for the future I  Ideas for the future from the teachers feedback questionnaire –Students could write stories about their observation experiences –There could be also some kind of quiz or competition for students – this would motivate them even more. This could be compiled by students themselves –Summer-camp for participants where they can learn more about nature. –Photo-competition

8. July 12th 2001Terje Tuisk & Janika RuusmaaAfrica Connects, Cape Town Plans for the future II  More plans –To translate our web-site to English –To have an international participation in the project from next Spring –To develop plan for international project by the end of this year – most probably the list of species will be open, there will be more additional activities that would make students more active and would make them more communicate with each other, etc. …