Entrant's address and contact details

School name:	Hounsdown School
School/college address:	Jacobs Gutter Lane Totton Southampton Hampshire SO40 9FT England
School phone number:	023 8086 2981
Number of pupils in school(s) - male:	600
Number of pupils in school(s) - female:	600
Number of staff in school(s):	160

Our team leader and our team

Name	Position (e.g. Headteacher, parent, etc.)	Organisation
Mr Rajesh Patel	Head of Science	Hounsdown School
Mrs Elaine Edwards	Senior Science Technician	Hounsdown School
Ms Doreen Longman	Community Co-ordinator	Hounsdown School
Mr Jonathan Garthwaite	IT Technician	Hounsdown School
Mr Steven Pike	Key Stage 4 co-ordinator	Hounsdown School
Mr Kenneth	Site Staff	Hounsdown School

The key skills, strengths and roles of each team member are: (200 words)



Rajesh Patel

Head of Science. Leads a science department of 13 teachers and 4 technicians. He is always keen to promote innovative teaching of science in an effort to raise achievement and engagement of the subject.



Elaine Edwards

Senior Science Technician. Elaine won the Salters’ Institute Science Technician of the Year award 2007. Prior to becoming a science technician, she worked as a chemist in the pharmaceutical, nuclear and food science industries.



Doreen Longman

Community Co-ordinator. Has a wealth of experience in working with the local community and has led many exciting projects. She is currently leading a project in developing an organic garden on the school grounds.



Jonathan Garthwaite

IT Technician. Is experienced in working on the school network. He has led the design and implementation of the Virtual Learning Environment.



Steven Pike

Key Stage 4 co-ordinator. Has excellent organisational abilities. He is currently developing the new Key Stage 4 schemes of work and is particularly keen to introduce activities which stimulate and motivate students.



Kenneth

Site Staff. Ken is a committed member of the site staff. His input in this project would be in aiding the design and building of the presentation wall.

Our proposal

Topic area of proposal: Processes and Living Things - Ecology/environment

Briefly, the aim of our proposal is: (50 words)



We will design and build an exhibit of several different habitats into the main corridor of our science department. As well as being a stunning visual display, students will be able to observe interactions of organisms from a unique perspective. Each display will have within it a webcam which can be accessed via the school website. The website will have interactive activities to allow pupils to learn about the different habitats.

Pupil type to benefit: All

Age range to benefit from proposal: 11-16

Learning outcomes from our proposal: (50 words)

• To raise awareness of how to care for and maintain fragile habitats.
• To develop children’s empathy towards a micro environment and to recognise the similarities with the care of our planet.
• To engage pupils with the ecology curriculum through innovative approaches.
• To develop students’ skills in the use of ICT.

Our reasons for developing this particular proposal: (100 words)

As a Science College, it is imperative that the science department has a high profile within the school. Through department meetings, it became clear that science staff thought that there should be some kind of visual display to promote science in the school. By building tanks into a wall of the corridor, it is hoped that we can bring a ‘wow’ factor to the teaching of ecology. We are currently developing the school website and believe that streaming footage onto the website via webcams will excite and motivate our students.

Detailed description of our proposal: (300 words)

We intend to build a studded wall along the length of our science corridor. The wall will have two large fish tanks built into it. One tank will be a cold water fish tank and the other will be a tropical fish tank. This will allow students to make comparisons between the two different habitats and study how plants and animals are adapted to these aquatic environments.

We will also set up other habitats which are likely to include an ant farm, a stick insect enclosure, a tank with frogs or toads and a tank with lizards.

In each of the displays there will be a high quality web camera in the habitat connected to a computer and streamed onto the school website. We will also use dataloggers with different probes including temperature and light probes to monitor conditions within each ecosystem.

The team members have volunteered to help build the studded wall and set up the initial habitats. Once built, the maintenance of the habitats will be completed by students from all year groups and will be carried out in extra-curricular clubs at lunchtime and after school.

The development of the school website will be completed by students in ICT club as an extra curricular activity after school. Using the expertise of members of the team, students will learn how to make interactive quizzes, video clips, flash animations and learn how to design web pages.

Once the project has been set up, the future maintenance costs will be funded through the science department budget as the intention is that the use of the resource will become an integral part of the teaching of the ecology and adaptations modules in both Key Stage 3 and 4.

Putting our proposal into practice

Outline of how our team would implement our proposal over a period of not more than 24 weeks: (300 words, bulleted lists accepted)

Week 1

• Meeting of team members to finalise design plans of the studded wall.
• Assign roles for the implementation of the project.
• Finalise the exact nature of each of the habitats and work out the equipment that needs to be purchased.
• Begin diary for the project.

Weeks 2-4

• Advertise the ICT club/approach current eco-schools club for volunteers.
• Purchase the materials required to build the studded wall.
• Seek advice about the best tanks and enclosures to purchase.

Weeks 5-8

• Team start to build studded wall.
• Purchase the tanks and enclosures to build into the wall.
• Students research the species that are going to inhabit the displays and start to produce fact files on them.
• Members of the ICT club to research what makes a successful website.

Weeks 9-15

• Stud wall completed.
• Students start to plan how the website will look and decide what activities need to be made. Resources to be uploaded to the website.
• Purchase the necessary component parts to maintain the environments such as water heaters, tank lighting, temperature probes.
• Purchase web cameras, a computer, data logging equipment.

Weeks 16-20

• Set up habitats in preparation for the introduction of organisms. Regulate temperature and light levels etc.
• Introduce first organisms into habitats such as aquatic plants into the fish tanks.
• Introduce web cameras and temperature probes etc and monitor whether it all works.

Weeks 21-23

• Purchase fish and other animals and introduce them to the stabilised habitats.
• Negotiate best prices for web cameras and probes.
• Advertise website in school newsletter.
• Website goes online.

Week 24

• Monitor the number of hits on the website.
• De-brief meeting of team members.
• Complete diary for the project and compile report on project.

Monitoring and evaluation

The monitoring procedures we will use during the project are: (200 words, bulleted lists accepted)

• Team members will meet up on a fortnightly basis to ensure that the project is on track.
• Team members will keep close contact through e-mail.
• Meet with students on a weekly basis during the ICT club to ensure that appropriate resources are being produced.
• Staff will fill in a questionnaire at the end of the project to assess the usefulness of the resource for teaching.
• Students in the ICT club will fill out a questionnaire to assess whether their ICT skills have improved due to the involvement in the project.
• To contact Rolls-Royce if there are any issues.
• Team leader to make weekly checks with members of the team to ascertain whether individuals are on target to meet various deadlines.

The evaluation procedures we will use at the end of the 25 weeks to check the effectiveness of our project are: (200 words, bulleted lists accepted)

• The number of hits the website receives in the first two weeks of being online will be recorded. In particular the number of hits on the activities pages will be recorded to check the usage of the website outside of school hours.
• In department meetings, staff to consider whether the project could be expanded to our partner primary schools. Initially providing access to the resources and possibly the setting up of similar displays at our feeder primary schools.
• Staff will fill in a questionnaire at the end of the project to assess the usefulness of the resource for teaching.
• Students in the ICT club will fill out a questionnaire to assess whether their ICT skills have improved due to the involvement in the project.

Budget

Itemised costs of putting your proposal into practice within a maximum budget of £5,000 or equivalent in Euros:

Budget Item Cost (GBP) Materials to build studded wall 1800 Labour costs to build studded wall provided by volunteers 0 2 X fish tanks (1500cm length), including pumps, filters, heaters and lighting 1500 2 X animal tanks, including lighting and heaters 300 Data logging equipment with probes provided by school already 0 Fish and plant life for fish tanks 500 Other ornaments for the fish tanks 300 Animals for the other two tanks provided by staff from own collections 0 Ornaments for animal tanks provided free from staff's own collections 0 4 X high quality web cameras 600 Computer to stream footage provided by school 0 TOTAL 5000