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The second meeting with our Beijing colleagues: STAR
The background - Project One
The
Holy Cross School is currently working with the Beijing Academy of Educational
Sciences (BAES), with Wang Wei, on the new “Stories for Children”
Project. In this project, stories are being developed in English, in London,
using PowerPoint, and these files are sent to Beijing, where they are posted
on the new www.learning-together.net
web site, especially prepared for this project by Wang Wei, and her BAES
team. In Beijing, these stories are then being translated into Mandarin.
The stories are also being illustrated by students, in both countries, for
comparison (see First Meeting section).
With the addition of voice-over English sound files, the project should,
by its completion, provide a useful web resource of narrative work for the
teaching of English in China.
Project Two
Alongside this new international collaboration, The Holy Cross School is
also working, through BAES, with Beijing School No. 50. The plan, here,
is to introduce the Holy Cross/ NASA “Science Through
Arts” (STAR) Project into Chinese schools. Cross-curricular work
is in its early stages in China, and so The Holy Cross School is actively
supporting the development of this new way of working. The development of
real scientific questioning techniques forms the heart of the STAR project,
together with the creative use of ICT tools across the school curriculum.
Second Meeting
Further impetus was given to the Holy Cross – Beijing School No 50
link, therefore, when a group of teachers, including their Vice Principal,
Chen Dong, visited London in early September. A second three-hour face to
face discussion over a meal of “pub grub” at a London Inn allowed
for more detailed development of the Science Through Arts Project. However,
discussion inevitably widened to include possible additional English language
projects to be developed with the English Department in Beijing. Watch this
space!
The STAR Project
The STAR project is changing its character, as budget
cuts in America sadly preclude further video-conferencing links with NASA.
Joe Kolecki, Mars Pathfinder
scientist, and a good friend of The Holy Cross School, however, will, after
his retirement from NASA, still support STAR by using email and email attachments.
His wise and friendly support, and colossal expertise, will be vital in
developing STAR across China. The focus of STAR, regarding school involvement,
thus shifts from American schools to Chinese schools, with MirandaNet, in
London, continuing to hold all the pedagogical aspects of the project, and
widening its participation further through these current UK-China web pages.
The Holy Cross Integrated Web Sites Project, which supports teachers, is
unaffected by these changes. Learning outcomes will also be posted in Beijing,
by School No. 50.
The first international links for STAR will involve Holy Cross AS Level English students emailing partners in School No. 50 with story outlines for their Language Coursework requirements. These story outlines will then be developed in Beijing by the addition of cartoon, or other, art forms which will illustrate these stories. The combined narrative and art work will finally be posted in both countries.
As the STAR project also runs, at a simpler level in Year 7 at Holy Cross, student reports and lesson plans, JPEGs of students working in class, working also through drama, and communication by email messages will also be used to support the development of STAR in China. Year 7 and Year 12 at Holy Cross will thus be working together to help the development of this project across China.
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