NatureOnYourScreen

Introduction

Challenge

ecosmile Education as well as young people's interest and motivation to take up careers in science and technology have had critical years throughout Europe. Unless the present situation is improved Europe will lose its chances to meet the challenges of a knowledge-based economy and become a society with improved scientific literacy meeting the strategic goals set in Lisbon in 2000. International surveys such as ROSE prove that although secondary school students' attitudes towards science are generally disappointing there are some areas - with a special respect on individual problem solving, environmental awareness and active participation - where students are very receptive to new ideas.

Modern pedagogy also claims that student-centred methods - be it group learning or individual inquiry - support awareness of scientific problems and improve students' scientific way of thinking, which therefore contribute to a better performance. Meanwhile, during the present stage of development and spread of the ICT tools, virtual learning environments receive more and more emphasis as an increasing proportion of our fellow human beings choose the computer as their primary information channel, where the source of the information is typically a local or a global network. This behaviour is claimed to significantly affect the methods of our usual learning. This is especially true for the younger age groups, for whom it is natural to use the computer.

Solution

In order to respond to these problems our aim is to establish a future leading learning environment with particular emphasis on technical-virtual features as well as social aspects in which learners can observe and discover phenomena through genuine inquiry. To achieve this we have written a software supported by teaching guidance - and also conducted successful experiments - which takes a complex (post-normal and cross-curricular) approach to ecological problems. The basic sets of problems are introduced through the students' exploring, experimenting and individual problem-solving which provides the context of the joy over the recognition. We also aimed at providing teachers with a tool with which they can continuously follow and support the students' work individually allowing process-orientated work and assessment.

Application

Recently we have visited some elementary and secondary schools where we could hold extraordinary biology lesson using the program. These lessons were given in computer science rooms, as on these occasions the students had the chance to experiment individually, which is a rare opportunity in the topic of ecology at these age groups. The students received both individual and group tasks to complete using the model. The structure and the highlighted areas of the lessons differed from time to time. Our long term aim is to develop a useful teaching aid as a product of our research.

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Introduction

Challenge

Solution

Application