Term 1, in Science, Year 2 were learning all about the Earth, its resources and the weather. They were also engaged in a very special global project designed to help them answer the ‘Big Question’ – “How is the weather different, in different parts of the world?”.
Harnessing technology purposefully, Year 2 educators created a conduit for MSC students to reciprocally share their learning experience with other young students from all over the world.
It all started with a word – ‘collaboration’ – and the desire to elevate the value of the learning efforts of the children. Three days after recording a “pitch video”, Ms Sims reached out via the MSC educational Twitter account and other social media – 11 interested schools responded, from Israel, Ireland, UAE, USA (Arizona and New York), New Zealand and Victoria!
A Keynote slide deck was created by Mrs Bitterman to give each school a place where they could capture observations about weather in their location and share their predictions and reflections – a collaborative science journal.
Six international schools participated, posting videos introducing their class and the area of the world they come from, gathering and posting their own daily data about the weather and sharing their reflections in our collaborative Keynote deck.
Year 12 students from Marymount School in New York volunteered to participate in the project as our ‘experts’, answering younger students’ questions about all things science and weather, via a video response platform called Flipgrid.
We had an amazing time with this collaboration. We can’t wait to embark on other international projects in the future!
Stories of Learning In Our Classrooms 