REFLECTION

When we first began to map our ideas for this project we had four lesson plans; one about animal classification; one about food; one about climate, and one where the students had to create the animal habitat for their allocated animal. Since then our project has expanded and changed slightly. It now includes seven lesson plans.
 * __REFLECTION JOURNAL __**

One of the first things we changed was the lesson plan where the students had to create their own habitat. As this project was created for year 3 students we did not feel that creating the actual animal habitat was possible, nor that this sort of challenge was appropriate for the chosen age group. We therefore decided to change this lesson so that, instead of actually building the animal habitat, the students would write a short report on how they would create the animal habitat for their allocated animal.

Additionally as we began to look at different resources and contemplate new ideas, we decided that we wanted to include an interview with a Zoo keeper as one of the ways where the students could gather information for their project. We decided to create a seperate lesson plan as the interview would take place during an excursion to the Zoo. We felt that this would make the research more exciting for the students as they would get the opportunity to interview an expert rather than only referring to books and websites. It would also encourage the students to engage in further discussion, collaboration and reflective thinking in order to come up with questions for the interview. They would have to record the interview on a MP3 Recorder and include their findings on their Mind maps. For this reason we felt that the interview with the Zoo keeper added a lot of educational value to the entire project.

We also decided that we wanted the entire project to end with a presentation where each group of students shared the knowledge they had gained about their allocated animal with the rest of the class. We decided to include Photo Story as one of the ICT tools for the presentation. As we began to write up the lesson plans we realized that we needed to have a seperate lesson where students were introduced to Photo Story; learned how to use it, and began preparing their group presentation, which also included the creation of an interesting poster. We thought students could not do all this as well as give a presentation in just one lesson. Hence another lesson plan was included and we ended up with a total of seven lesson plans.

Originally we envisioned this project to run over five consecutive weeks. Now it is more likely that the project would run over six consecutive weeks depending on how much time the teacher decided to give the students in between each lesson. Looking back it seems that we have had a quite clear understanding of where we wanted to go with this project almost from the very beginning. As we discussed and brainstormed out thoughts, some ideas were discarded and new ideas emerged, but the main idea of the entire project did not changed. Rather it was enhanced and made more interesting and appropirate for the targeted age group.

We hope that by the end of this project the students will have gained a better understanding of their allocated animal and the habitiat the animal requires to survive. This understanding will include knowing the animals' place in the food chain; any threats to the animal and unique features or needs of the animal. We also hope the students will have gained new skills in researching and collaborating as a small group, as well as a certain level of confidence in using the ICT tools chosen for the project. The knowledge and skills students will have acquired by the conclusion of this project will most likely enable them to engage in similar research projects with more confidence and competency.