Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group Newsletter 8 Visibility of eTwinning Projects Newsletter 8 | Page 54

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2018 Newsletter
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In addition, the creation of the Solar System model
and the use of software/tools and other resources
allowed me and my colleagues to assess certain
skills of the students such as initiative, the use of
ICT and teamwork.
A safe and critical use of ICT allowed for the
exchange of information among partners.
Through the project, we tried to develop the
students’ skills in learning and organizing their
tasks and time (each month we set a deadline for
each activity), and they have worked individually
and collaboratively.
Our students have interacted with their partners in
live events and in the TwinSpace. The creation of
games such as a board game, crosswords, jigsaw
puzzles, gave the opportunity to review
fundamental concepts of astronomy and improved
students' creativity. Students' skills were
furthermore developed through the observation of
the sky, which took place at the astronomical
observatories or with the telescopes belonging to
schools, students or teachers.
In Slovenia a group of students worked during
classes of elective subject of astronomy. At the end
of the year they showed their knowledge on open
day of school and on the day of experiments. Also
they produced model of solar system in school hall.
In France, the students were working on this
project during maths and science CLIL lessons. An
eTwinning project is for sure one of the best way to
study science while collaboration and
communicating in English with the partners.
We should mention that the success of the project
was due to the teachers of each school fostering a
climate of positive interaction student-teacher,
student-student and among partners promoting
emphatic relations, cooperation, citizenship etc. The
activities enhanced the students' self confidence,
improving their social skills, promoting intercultural
dialogue, and they were encouraged to learn
foreign languages and develop ICT skills. Resources
about famous astronomers, planets and their
environment and the glossary were created by our
students through collaborative activities and
teamwork. The students of each school used
different software to explore the schools of their
partners. In this way we had the opportunity to
know each other better and understand the
differences and similarities that exist in the
educational systems of our countries.
All activities were widely shared with video and by
using different tools and web-meetings. Games that
were created for partners had a great success
among the students.
The ice breaking activities were imagined in order
to make the students discover a way to
communicate, especially via the forums. Indeed,
the forum “Activity 1: What do you know about my
country” included Padlets where the students could
share their knowledge about the partners’ countries
but they could also comment on what had been said
about their own country. Activities 3 and 4 required
the use of videoconference systems. The
communication between the students was very
important for “Activity 3: Planet of the famous
astronomers” because biographies were only based
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