Building Bridges for Sustainable Futures

UF Faculty: Gayle Evans Department: Science Education Department College: College of Education	Partner Faculty: Byron Josué Meraz Flores Department: Departamento de Administración y Gestión de la Educación Partner Institution: Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán (UPNFM)

Project details
Title:	Building Bridges for Sustainable Futures: International Virtual Collaboration Through Shared Lesson Planning
Project Description:	Students across both groups were partnered to collaborate around the design and planning of a lesson related to one of the UN SDGs. Each set of partners chose which goal they would like to focus on, discussed how that goal relates to their local context, and how they could design a lesson to educate students about the international situation around that goal.
Learning Outcomes:	Students will be able to describe the situation of one of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals (of their choosing) in the context of their country and within the county of their partners, including problems and potential solutions, then demonstrate their ability to plan a lesson based on one of the UN SDGs that is based on appropriate grade level and content standards for the students they would potentially teach. (comparing and contrasting the standards used in the United States to those used in Honduras) Students will be able to share and learn about the school experiences in their home country and in the context of their partners, finding areas in common and differences in how schooling is practiced. Students will be able to enhance their intercultural communication skills and their ability to work effectively in diverse teams by participating in this project with international partners.
Participating Countries:	Honduras
Number of Participants:	6 UF Students; 20-25 UPNFM Students
Discipline:	Sustainability
UF Course Code & Name:	SMT3301C - Classroom Interactions in Secondary Science
Project Duration:	11 Weeks
Activity Type(s):	Student-to-Student Dialogue Student-to-Student Project
Time allotted to each activity:	Synchronous Activities: 1 hour (3 times) Asynchronous activities: 0.5-1 hours/week Local group activities: 4 hours total Individual work: 0.5 hours/week
Technology Tools:	Padlet Google Drive Zoom WhatsApp
Sequence of Activities:	Icebreaker: Icebreakers (sharing facts about the country- food, favorite places, traditions, nature) – students create short videos introducing themselves (~1-2 minutes) -including a translation to their post-students shared their videos via Padlet Engagement Activity: Discuss and compare the school context in their local area (Zoom): In our first group meeting, student groups met in Zoom breakout rooms to describe their educational experiences. Each student made a google slide with information they wanted to share. Collaboration Activity: Groups selected SDG of focus, researched the SDG in their country & reported back to partner(s) (began in Zoom, continued in WhatsApp) Students brainstormed lesson ideas /activities (students create a product that could be shared across languages) (began in Zoom, continued in WhatsApp) Finalizing the lesson plan (WhatsApp and in class time ) & Teach the lesson. (field experience) Share feedback from the teaching that happened (student evidence, video clips, etc) (Zoom and shared google slides post) Reflection Activity: Individual reflections about the COIL VE Experience: group communication, their personal contribution to the success of the collaboration, the extent to which the VE contributed to their educational growth, and suggestions for future implementations of a COIL VE. Shared reflection: Each group had a shared set of google slides in which each student prepared a slide with what they learned about their partners, reflection upon the planning & teaching of their lesson, recommendations for improving the lesson. At the final Zoom group meeting, each group shared the common themes from their group slides with the full combined classes.