MacICT (SEE )- Schools Exploring Environments

This year I’ve been working with the team at the Macquarie ICT Innovations Center (MacICT) on the development of a student centered inquiry based online version of the successful Local Environment Project (LEP). The LEP uses a partnership model where secondary students mentor nearby primary school students in the use of mobile learning technologies such as data loggers, laptops, NOVAs and iPhones. Students investigate their local environment and measure biodiversity health before coming up with an action plan for the future. The program, supported by video conferencing has been a great success in the Sydney region.

The online course supports distance schools investigating their local ecosystem to identify and build environmental awareness about the factors affecting the biodiversity in the natural environment. The middle-years project allows schools to work individually on their own project or collaboratively whereby high school students mentor primary school partners in the shared responsibility of caring for their local ecosystem.

Schools anywhere in the world can access a LAMS sequence that allows the teacher to confidently plan collaborative student centred learning experiences utilising research, questions, forums, voting, data collection and group decision making processes. In the field, students engage with locally accessible technologies such as laptops, digital cameras and data loggers.

Vist the homepage and blog to find out more and preview the sequence yourself.