Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2018 Newsletter------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project based learning together with inquiry based learning is a efficient way to integrate STEAM topics in primary school classes.
STEAM activities are the best way to let students use their curiosity, creativity and to learn different scientific things.
Natural disasters – Earthquakes: The purpose of using STEAM activities was to investigate the reality of the environment about natural disasters- earthquakes- and to know the concrete situations of preparation for civil protection situations. We planned the topics such as 1. What is and how does the earthquake come? Seismic waves; 2.. The vibrations produced by earthquakes, 3. Effects of the earthquakes to the community; 4. How do we prepare ourselves in case of an earthquake.
Children created their own earthquakes( with jelly), their seismographs to understand better how it is measured the intensity. They also made their constructions of sticks / carton and then they observed the behaviour of the constructions based on the speed of the balance, depending on the height or foundation of the buildings or the type of soil. Students had their hypotheses too: Are safer the higher buildings during the earthquake than those with fewer levels?/ Do wide foundation buildings resist better during the earthquake than the lower / narrower foundations?/ Are in danger of collapsing / diving the buildings built on a waterrich land? Benefits- WATER CYCLE IN NATURE
The purpose of these STEAM activities during the eTwinning project SO THAT WE ' RE NOT AFRAID https:// twinspace. etwinning. net / 45279 / home was to investigate the reality of the environment regarding the water benefits within its cycle in nature. part, students had to solve the next problem: If 41 % of the evaporated water comes from the sea, 13 % from the ground and 1 % from the rivers and lakes what is the percentage of the water which comes from the plants? 5. Arts: In order to understand better the terms: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, we created a song in Romanian. Children loved it and sang it with pleasure.
The second activity was about“ My life as a drop of water”, where children had to explain the process and the whole cycle of the water circulation in nature. 1. Technology- using tablets / computers, students watched a video in Romanian, about the story of a water droplet, told by PAXI, then they played Natural water cycle game: link: https:// www. educationsoutheastwater. com. au / reso urces / natural-water-cycle-game, where they helped the water droplet to evaporate, to condensate and to transform into precipitations. 2. Science. Watching a. ppt, children learnt about the fact that water can be found in many places: in rivers, oceans, plants, animals, underground, soil... They also learnt that water remains in the same place for a while. 3. Engineering: a) It was fun making a mechanism that, by its movement, showed the circuit of water in nature( children made in pairs the water cycle wheels and, moving the 2 parts, they proved how the drop of water circulate) b) Making a model- Students explained the benefits of the water in-water cycle 4. Maths: Game: Water droplet journey Children, in pairs, played the game, modelling the path that water takes from soil to rivers or from lakes / ocean to clouds. They chart the path, they listed the processes and demonstrated at the same time the understanding of geochemical cycles. 5. Arts: A nice activity was to make comics to tell the story of the drop of water.
The first activity was related specific terms: evaporation, condensation, precipitations. 1. Technology: Using tablets / computer to find out information and to fill in a CLIL table starting with the words: condensare / condensation; evaporare / evaporation; precipitații / precipitations; circuitul apei / water cycle. 2. Science: Explaining scientific phenomena watching the video 3. Engineering: Application- evaporation and clouds formation. For this activity, the students, in pairs, used hot water, ice, salt, vessel. They demonstrated how the clouds and precipitation are formed. 4. Maths: Using the information from the scientific
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