| School name: | John Scottus |  |
|---|---|---|
| School/college address: | 74/76 Morehampton Road
Donnybrook Dublin Dublin 4 Republic of Ireland | |
| School phone number: | 35316680828 | |
| Number of pupils in school(s) - male: | 85 | |
| Number of pupils in school(s) - female: | 95 | |
| Number of staff in school(s): | 20 | |
| Name | Position (e.g. Headteacher, parent, etc.) | Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Declan Kelly | Science Teacher | JSS |
| Dr Michael Telford | Headmaster | JSS |
| Dr John Doran | Assistant Head, School of Physics | Dublin Institute of Technology |
| Mr Brendan Tangney | Senior Lecturer | Trinity College Dublin |
The key skills, strengths and roles of each team member are: (200 words)
Dr. Declan Kelly teaches science in John Scottus School. He has extensive experience in working with computers. He will be the link between the pupils, who carry out the project and the other team members.
Mr. Brendan Tangney: A Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and co-director of Trinity's Centre for Research in IT in Education. He has extensive experience in innovative IT projects in schools.
Dr John Doran: Asst. Head, School of Physics. Current research activity in the field of renewable energy. Role will be to develop an understanding among students of the need for recycling.
Dr Michael Telford. Headmaster. Extensive experience in teaching science and organising projects. Role will be to evalute progress and monitor performance
Topic area of proposal: Generic Issues - Using ICT
Briefly, the aim of our proposal is: (50 words)
Misconceptions that students bring to Science persist and are difficult to dissolve. To address this an investigative inquiry based approach may be used to encourage students to construct an understanding of science which is consistent with modern day Science. In parrallel, technology now affords greater potential to creatively capture and document the inquiry process that students follow.
The objective of this project is to enable students develop inquiry skills through the creation of digital narratives. Digital narratives involve students capturing key events in the experimental process and creating a story around these images or movies.
Pupil type to benefit: All
Age range to benefit from proposal: 11-16
Learning outcomes from our proposal: (50 words)
Our reasons for developing this particular proposal: (100 words)
Currently, the school is very strong in the areas of language and art. The school now wishes to enthuse more students to continue the study of science through an appreciation of what motivates great science and what may be achieved by engaging in science. Currently, experiments are used to connect students with essence of the subject. The next step is to develop inquiry skills through the creation of digital narrative around the experimental process. Digital stories will allow students to express and deepen their understanding of science, and hence motivate students to truly engage in the scientific reasoning.
Detailed description of our proposal: (300 words)
The misconceptions that students bring to Science prevail despite the best efforts of teachers. To address this issue, students will work on investigative experiments that require inquiry skills. To demonstrate their understanding of concepts, students will create digital narrative around the key events in their inquiry process.
The students, aged 13 to 15, will work on investigative type experiments in five areas: Electricity, Forces, Classification of Substances, Air and Plants.
Student will research and plan five experiments of personal interest. Before the experiments take place, students will be trained in inquiry methods to gain the skills needed to conduct inquiry based investigative science.
As the student conducts the experiment, they will capture critical moments in the experimental process by digital camera and and/or video camera.
From this library of digital clips, the student will create a digital story of the experiment based around the key events in the inquiry process. In addition to working at school, students will also work in a research lab in a nearby university, Trinity College Dublin, specializing in the development of digital narrative.
The digital narratives created will be showcased at a science fair in the school. In addition they will be made available to other schools via the school website.
The proposal will benefit students through the development of inquiry skills and a deeper understanding of science. In addition the proposal will be of benefit to all teachers within the school through the development of inquiry based skills and the creation of a digital library of experiments.
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
Weeks 2 to 6
Week 7-8
Weeks 9 to 19
Weeks 20 to 21
Weeks 22
Weeks 23 to 24
The monitoring procedures we will use during the project are: (200 words, bulleted lists accepted)
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)
Itemised costs of putting your proposal into practice within a maximum budget of £5,000 or equivalent in Euros:
| Budget Item | Cost (EURO) |
|---|---|
| Camcorder x 3 | 1200 |
| Digital Camera x 6 | 1200 |
| Laptops x 3 | 2000 |
| Software Licenses | 900 |
| School Cover Days (6 x 200) | 1200 |
| TOTAL | 6500 |