Interschool Environmental Club

I have very recently started up a wiki for a small group of students who have created an environmental club at our school (all grade 6 students). They felt that one of the main objectives of the group would be to communicate issues and solutions to the school community and that a wiki would be a great way to do this. The students have only just started putting information on the page and it still needs refinement.

My question to you - Is there anyone who has a similar group happening at their school who would like to join forces on the wikispace? My thoughts for the wiki would be that students could post issues, solutions and things they are doing to help - both at school and home.

I would like this to be very much led by students. The idea is to give the students a sense of empowerment over their concerns for our world and the solutions.

Tags: collaboration, environmental, sustainability, wiki, wikispaces

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Permalink Reply by Vincent Mespoulet on February 17, 2008 at 2:11am

yes you're right about "giving the students a sense of empowerment over their concerns for our world and the solutions.". I try do do the same but i don't use Wiki with my students (Grade 6 to 9). We use a group "Save the Planet" (46 members now) inside the ning i manage (around 400 members) School Beyond the Walls". Can we plan any collaboration between your wiki and my ning ?
Have a nice day !

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Permalink Reply by Ben Grundy on February 17, 2008 at 4:55pm

Thanks Vincent
I have had a quick look at your site. It looks great, but as most of it is in French it may be hard for our students to contribute/gain from this. However, if your students would like a new audience to work with, perhaps they could look at developing some sort of input for our wiki - say, once a month - and then the students here could respond, take the suggestions on board, etc.
Just a suggestion. Let me know if you're keen to go ahead with this. Also, I am meeting with the kids today, so i will get their feedback on the possibility of the idea. If they aren't keen, I'll let you know.
Cheers.

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Permalink Reply by Vincent Mespoulet on February 18, 2008 at 1:32pm

Ok Ben but there is a problem... Your wiki's link doesn't work. If you give me the right link, i'll register me to check out your work...

Have a nice day !

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Permalink Reply by Ben Grundy on February 18, 2008 at 5:16pm

http://enviroclub.wikispaces.com

Sorry about that - typo

I met with the kids yesterday and we agreed that it would be good to pick one issue to focus on each month. So the issue this month is packaging (the kids have just finished an inquiry unit on it). The aim is to gather resources from the internet the expose the problems associated with packaging and some solutions that people can take on board. As I mentioned, we have only just begun, so there's not much there at this stage - in fact, it's basically empty.

It would be great to have some students from other schools adding to the topic of the month - i think it would really engage the kids at both ends. Let me know what you think.

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Permalink Reply by Vincent Mespoulet on February 19, 2008 at 1:51am

It's a great idea, Ben.

Just a suggestion: i put your issue about "packaging" into a discussion inside our ning group. And i'll send you on your wiki the work of my students (if they want to work about it :). We can send english translation, but it would be also nice if you have a French Teacher Language in your school.

May i put a link on my ning to your wiki ?

Here is a nice clip video about packaging, realized by french middle School students in Guadeloupe island. I plan to join them...

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Permalink Reply by Vincent Mespoulet on February 19, 2008 at 2:34am

I add your issue on my ning's group. Is it ok for you ?

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Permalink Reply by Ben Grundy on February 19, 2008 at 2:48am

Hey Vincent

This is sounding great. I'm more than happy for you to add the wiki to your ning. By all means, go ahead and add any info you like.

With regards to the French/English issue I can see what I can do. Our students actually learn French as a second language, but I'm not too sure how advanced they are. If the kids can't translate, I can try one of the French teachers.

Look forward to yours and your students' input.

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Permalink Reply by Vincent Mespoulet on February 19, 2008 at 4:01am

Other way: in my ning we use automatic translator: very bad but understandable and better than nothing to understand us in french, english, spanish, italian. We speak also lituanian, chinese and many other languages into my ning :)