Judit Horgas | BEST PRACTICES [dragonfly]

JUDIT HORGAS

DRAGONFLY BEST PRACTICES of an Ecological and Literary Program for Children Edited by ANIKÓ BOGNÁR

Supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations Special thanks to András Victor and Judit Albert

INTRODUCTION

The Liget (Grove) Workshop Foundation of Budapest was among the first non-profit organizations established in Hungary after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was founded by a physician couple, Dr and Mrs László Levendel in 1991. The Levendels were interested in both culture and social issues. The Liget Foundation has promoted cultural and ecological thinking for almost two decades by providing an ideal haven for writers, poets, scientists and philosophers through journal and book publication, lecture series, teacher trainings and various websites and blogs.

In 2008, the Liget (Grove) Workshop Foundation initiated an ecological and cultural educational program, Szitakötő (Dragonfly) for Hungarian-speaking primary school students in Hungary and the neighboring countries (Serbia, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia). The basis of the program is a literary and ecological journal for children. The students and teachers who take part in the program get copies free. The aim of the program is to give practical help to teachers and to start a theoretical and methodological change in elementary ecological education by combining science and arts. Although some private schools have started integrating alternative methodology, teachers working in average Hungarian elementary schools have no access to such materials in Hungarian – especially not for free. While ecological thinking is claimed to be the key element of our sustainable future, even the most important aspects are not mentioned during teacher training.

This unique, high-quality journal and educational program has been highly appreciated by several educational organizations (e.g. Association of Hungarian Environmental Teachers, Hungarian Institute of Educational Research and Development, National Talent Support Programme, Hungarian Eco-School Network, Foundation for Democratic Youth, Pressley Ridge Hungary Foundation). Teachers, students and parents have sent thousands of letters expressing their gratitude and admiration, a selection of the letters is available on our website in Hungarian. The program pays special attention to children with socially disadvantaged background and children suffering from mental or learning disorders, because we believe that culture and education should not be a special privilege of advantaged children. The articles of the magazine and the training materials help the teachers and students on their way to an environmentally and socially sustainable future.

As part of the program each institution receives a teacher training session to help them integrate the articles of the journal into their everyday work. There is also an activity for students that teachers can visit to see how the methodology works in practice. The website of the program (www.szitakoto.com) contains all the previous articles, free teaching materials, ideas, exercises, games and a photo gallery of the children’s works. Students and teachers can win children’s books and books of literature also published by the Foundation every week. The journal is published four times a year.

The program has been mainly sponsored by various government ministries. After the 2010 Hungarian elections the cultural policy was changed. As a survey by Eurydice (Funding of Education in Europe, 2012) pointed out state funding of elementary education was cut by 25% in 2011. The funding of the program has been drastically reduced or stopped by most of the former sponsors. As a result, the number of participating institutions had to be reduced and the foundation is using up its very last resources to fund it.

THE COLLECTION OF BEST PRACTICES

The worldwide financial crisis and the new social and educational policies of the Hungarian government of 2010 very quickly resulted in severe social problems. Poverty spread and teachers had to face more and more underfed children. Social exclusion, especially the rejection of Romani people became a tolerated practice with the growing popularity of an extremist right wing party in Parliament. As George Soros pointed out in a speech of 2010: “Structural poverty in Roma communities is intimately linked to poor education and unemployment. The Commission's Europe 2020 initiative sets specific targets for raising school completion rates and employment levels for all EU citizens. In both of these areas, Roma fall so far behind their fellow citizens that targeted measures to close the gap should be an integral part of the Europe 2020 plan�.

Liget Workshop Foundation was established to promote ecological thinking and in our understanding human ecology is the science of co-existence based on social and cultural acceptance. So we published various articles, blogs and an interview series discussing these issues and decided to raise these topics in Dragonfly, as well. We believed that social exclusion must be stopped at the earliest age possible.

The Open Society Institute Budapest Foundation gave a generous grant in the academic year of 2013/14 to sponsor a project of the Dragonfly program that aimed to raise the awareness of students to the problems of social exclusion and to persuade them to become active citizens. An important part of the project was the publication of a study on the findings of the program in English. However, while I was preparing to write the study, I travelled all around Hungary, I went to Oradea, Romania and Senta, Serbia training teachers and university students, librarians and therapeutists and doing activities with elementary school children some of whom were suffering from mental or learning disorders. During these approximately 80 meetings I had to realize that a long study can never be as useful as a collection of best practices that also serve as an introduction of the methodology.

So I chose some of the topics I especially enjoyed during the six years of working with Dragonfly.

Some of the activities I did at the teacher training sessions with adults, so I had to transform them slightly to suit a younger audience. Some parts of the activities had to be transformed due to linguistic differences, Hungarian being a highly poetic and very complex language and my translating skills being very modest. Instead of short instructions I wrote dialogues between T (the teacher) and the students, because I felt it was the best way to express the playful, humorous and mutually respectful atmosphere I aim to achieve during the activities. Most of the students’ answers were actually said during the activities. These dialogues, of course, cannot and should not be repeated word for word, as every teacher has a unique personality that will alter it slightly or significantly.

Activities are listed in the alphabetical order of the titles. I recommend these activities for teachers and educators of all subjects.

Although sometimes I wrote time limits for certain parts of the activities, I did not want to set a rigid time frame. As most of the activities are formed by the students’ opinions and skills, the teacher can decide how much time is needed or allowed for discussion. My personal experience is that most children enjoy the opportunity of talking, but when they have to listen to others they become fidgety after a few minutes. All the activities described here should be enjoyable enough to fight boredom and indifference, the lethal enemies of a teacher, but they have to be handled with some theatrical sense. I have always believed that a really captivating teacher must be the combination of an excellent stand-up comedian and a scholar. One without the other is either too dull or too shallow.

As the program is based on a Hungarian magazine, I had to translate some parts of the texts I used. These translations and some auxiliary materials can be found in the Appendix.

Some of the activities can be turned into a longer project by giving the students tasks. Some ideas for such tasks can be found in the Appendix.

BASIC PRINCIPLES

The following basic principles sum up the most important aspects of Dragonfly: - Respect All the texts of the magazine and the activities are based on respect of the child. Children are considered to be sentient, thinking beings who should not be manipulated in any way.

Advertisements are therefore banned in the magazine. During the activities the child is to be respected both verbally and non-verbally. Mutual trust and understanding, a basic prerequisite of all teaching and learning situations can only be achieved by offering the child individual attention and respect.

- Language The texts of the poems, fairy tales, short stories and articles are diverse, often humorous and literary, but at the same time they are easy to read, contain lots of explanations and help with the pronunciation of foreign names and expressions. The layout of the pages is specially designed for children.

- High quality printing The journal is printed using high quality paper and technology to enable visual education. Its outer look promote long-term use, children and teachers often call the issues ‘books’ and not magazines. An important part of the environmental education the program represents is that the copies are not discarded after use but saved in the libraries of schools and are often re-used.

- Ecology Environmental education in Hungary has been among the first fields to use alternative pedagogical methods. Dragonfly aims to widen the field by combining environmental and art education to promote ecological awareness and active, joyful learning of both scientific and art subjects.

- Social awareness A growing number of Hungarian schoolchildren have to face the consequences of poverty. The most recent Gallup survey of 34 OECD countries asked the question. “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy the food that you or your family needed?” The result show that Hungary has seen this measure climb by 32 points, with almost

half of all individuals (47%) with children in 2013 reporting difficulty affording food in the past 12 months.

Extremist right wing political forces use these economic problems to heighten the social rejection of the Romani (Gypsy) people and the educational government tolerates the racial segregation of Romani children, although it is against the law.

Dragonfly aims to call the students’ and teachers’ attention to these problems and offers activities for primary school children to promote a step-by-step process of social integration.

- Lack of special materials Activities are designed to be cheap, available, reproducible, transformable and transportable, without any specific technological equipment so that they can be easily adapted to the highly diverse state of affairs in different schools.

BASIC TECHNIQUES

Eye contact In all educational situations it is very important to keep the attention of the audience. The best way to remind them of the respect you expect is to show that you respect them individually and not as a bunch of kids. By making eye contact with the students for a few seconds you express recognition, acceptance, attention and understanding and thereby build their self-respect.

A very important part of the teacher’s communication is how you handle eye contact.

While a student is talking you have to decide if s/he needs constant eye contact (e.g. when expressing opinion some need immediate and constant confirmation) or it is unnecessary and could be disturbing / threatening.

Some students may need more attention, but it is important to move your gaze around after a few (4–5) seconds. A longer eye contact would be understood as a stare – which is an effective, but mild way of showing your dissatisfaction (e. g. when the student is fidgeting or talking).

Name tags A good way of showing respect of the students is learning their first name. In case one has to teach students without an opportunity to learn their names it is a good idea to make them draw name tags.

Introduce yourself and ask them to choose a nickname they like. Hand out empty pieces of paper and give them a few minutes to prepare their cards. During the activity make a point of using their names as often as possible. This will quickly establish a certain level of trust that will help you become more effective during the activity.

DO NOT mix up their names. Students resent that.

DO NOT make jokes with their names, even if they sound strange. If you can’t help expressing surprise or have difficulty in pronouncing a name, try to make it positive by adding “Wow, what a lovely name you have!”.

Classroom arrangement In most of the activities students have to move around, work in pairs or groups of four or six. It is important to have enough room to do the activities safely and with joy. Desks should be arranged in a way to make enough room for the teacher to move around, supervising and drawing in

students who might wish to stay in the background. If the teacher approaches these students, stands by their desks encouraging them during the activities, the children will be much more motivated to participate. I have had several occasions to experience that emotionally neglected or mentally disabled children need only a few seconds of personal attention, a big smile or a hearty acknowledgement to bloom. Often they would come to me after the activity to hold my hand, kiss me or hug me even though we met for the first time.

On the other hand, too small or too big a classroom can ruin the atmosphere of the activity. If it’s too small for the number of participants, and the students are crammed in, children tend to misbehave more because they don’t have enough place for themselves. If it is too big, there can be acoustic problems and the lack of intimacy makes a meaningful conversation impossible.

1. Chameleon Overview

Arts / Science / Reading 4th grade (9y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

This activity combines literature, fine arts and science to help students become aware of their own body functions and to discuss exclusion.

Materials

Objectives

Other Resources

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teaching facts of science (e.g. chameleon, blood circulation, human muscles, tendon sheath) development of vocabulary building (expressions) discussion of cultural differences of color perception teaching facts of art history (painters’ knowledge of the human body) discussion of exclusion and prejudice developing reading skills

Dragonfly 2014/25

Colored pictures of a girl Prints of El Greco’s paintings

Activities The students have already read a page-long story, Chameleon about Leon, a strange schoolboy who changes his color. He becomes red when he is very happy, ice blue when he is scared, greenish black when he is angry, etc. His classmates mock him until a new, beautiful girl comes to school and chooses him to be her boyfriend. At the end of the story the classmates try to imitate him.

T: How did you like the story about Leon?

Ss express their opinion.

T: What do you think about his classmates?

Ss express their opinion.

T: Why did they mock him?

S: Because he was different.

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T: Sometimes it is hard to accept that we are all different. It is hard to see that even though we differ, we all enjoy company and need friends. Can you think of situations when somebody is excluded because of some differences?

Ss make a list: e.g. skin color, social background, physical or intellectual abilities.

T: Yes, very good. I think the end of the story is a good reminder that we should be careful with our prejudices. Why do you think the title of this story is Chameleon?

S: Because the chameleon changes its color like Leon, the boy in the story.

TIP If the T knows about students who have specific problems with exclusion (tend to be bullies or to be bullied) it is very important to select the examples of exclusion carefully.

If a well-known example (e.g. a student is frequently bullied because she is overweight) is given first, the students will feel targeted and think the whole activity was designed to teach them a lesson. But if the T makes a list of possible ways and reasons of exclusion and “hides” the familiar situation among them, the students will be more relaxed.

T: Yes, very good. Do you know why the chameleon changes its color?

S: To hide in its environment. If it is among green leaves, it will turn green, if it is on the brown bark of a tree, it will turn brown.

T: Yes, excellent, as you very well put it, the chameleon is very clever at hiding, but researchers found that the chameleon really changes its color to communicate with other chameleons. It is a kind of chameleon body language. In the story, however, Leon is not a chameleon but a schoolboy. Do you think people change colors like chameleons?

Ss first tend to say no.

T: Okay, so there are no chameleons in this class? Are you sure? Do you never change your color? I will show you a picture of a girl. Is she pretty? She looks very healthy, I think. Do you agree? What should we call her?

Ss give her a name, e.g. Fanny.

T: Okay, let’s call her Fanny. I must tell you that Fanny can change her color. I will show you. Look at this. What happened to her?

S: She turned pale.

T: Yes, she did. Why do you think Fanny turned pale?

Ss make a list: She got scared. She is tired, ill. She received some bad news and she is sad.

T: Yes, very good. Can somebody explain what happens in your

1. Chameleon

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body when you turn pale?

S: There isn’t enough blood in your head.

T: Yes, excellent. You know that blood circulates in your body and if there isn’t enough blood in your head, you might feel dizzy or sick.

Okay, let’s see how Fanny changes her color one again. What happened to her?

S: She turned crimson, she reddened.

T: Okay, and what would you say if you want to be polite about this lovely young girl?

S: We can say she blushed.

T: Yes, great! Now why would that happen?

Ss make a list: She is embarrassed or excited, she worked out, made a headstand, got sunburnt, has fever, had an accident and fell on her face, etc.

T: Wow, you have some imagination! Now tell me what the difference is between her being excited or embarrassed and being sunburnt?

S: Being sunburnt will only go away after a few days.

T: Yes, it’s true. Also, if you remember what we said about turning pale you can explain what happens when Fanny gets excited or makes a headstand.

S: There is more blood in her head.

T: Yes, very good. So it is different from being sunburnt because it is not the surface of her skin that is temporarily red. Now let’s see another change. What happened to her?

S: She is Chinese.

T: Come on, you either born to be Chinese or not. You do not become Chinese suddenly. Something just happened to her.

S. She is envious.

T: Do you really become yellow when you feel envy?

S: No.

TIP The T should point out that while Hungarians and Germans associate envy with the color yellow, English speaking nations say “green with envy”, Poles associate envy with purple, Russians with black, etc.

T: I sincerely hope not! But there is a very serious illness that turns 1. Chameleon

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you yellow. Do you know what it is called?

S: Jaundice.

T: Yes, well done. It is the illness of the liver and if you see anybody turning yellow, you should immediately send them to the doctor.

Okay, let’s see another change of Fanny.

S: She feels sick.

T: Yes, but to tell the truth, I overdid it a bit. You do not really turn that green when you feel sick, but very often we associate green with sickness and poison. How about this?

S: She is very angry. She is suffocating.

T: Both can be true, although once again I was exaggerating with this picture. If you are very, very angry, there might be so much blood in your head that it almost looks purple. On the other hand, if you cannot breath and you are suffocating that means there is not enough fresh oxygen in your blood and it gets a bluish color. Okay, let’s see the last picture of Fanny.

S: She is cold.

T: Yes, very good. Has it ever happened that you were bathing in a lake or the sea and you felt cold but you did not want to stop bathing? How can your parents tell you are cold?

S: My lips are blue.

T: Exactly. The problem is, you cannot see your own lips unless you have a mirror with you. But who would have a bath with a mirror?

So it is best to believe your parents when they say you are blue with cold.

Now, as you can see, humans can change their colors almost as well as chameleons and involuntarily we use it as a kind of body language, too.

I wonder what else you know about chameleons.

S: They can move their eyes independently from each other.

T: Yes, very good. Now is there anybody in class who can do that?

Ss try and fail.

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T: Don’t worry, humans cannot rotate or focus their eyes separately as chameleons.

Try to close only one of your eyes. If you look at each other, you can see wrinkles on each other because humans have to make an effort to do that. Our muscles developed to close or open both eyes at the same time. We rarely need to do it with only one eye so it needs an effort.

There are other such features in the human body, I will show you one more. Place your hand on the table in front of you. Try to lift your thumb while all the other four fingers are kept on the table. It is easy, isn’t it? Now try your index-finger. The other four fingers should remain on the table. Try all your fingers one by one. Which was the most difficult to lift?

S: The ring-finger.

T: Exactly. Can you explain why?

Ss usually think the ring-finger and the little finger are connected.

T: You are almost right. If you feel the back of your hand you will find string-like things inside. Those are your tendons. These tendons end in tendons sheaths. The middle finger and the ring finger share the same tendon sheath, so it is difficult to lift the ring finger separately.

Let me show you something. These are paintings by El Greco.

He was of Greek origin, but he worked in Spain so he was called “The Greek”, El Greco in Spanish. His real name was Doménikos Theotokópoulos, not an easy name to remember, so he is known as El Greco. Why do you think I am showing you his paintings? How are they connected to our topic?

S: The fingers are painted funny.

T: Yes, as you have noticed, he painted the fingers funny. We have just seen that our middle finger and ring-finger are more closely connected than our other fingers. El Greco was aware of that and often painted figures that held their hands that way.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this lesson?

1. Chameleon

TIP The T can point out that at the time El Greco lived, in the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, anatomy was not as well known as today. In Europe there were occasional public dissections where such

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Students are invited to share their ideas.

T: Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed the activity.

things could be learnt, but it was later, in the 17th and 18th century that the research of anatomy flourished.

.

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2. Color Ball Overview

Literature / Drama / Science 4th grade (9y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

This complex activity combines various fields and techniques to sensitize students, raising their social awareness, forming an attitude of acceptance.

Materials

Objectives

Other Resources

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practice of communicational skills (eye contact, body language) vocabulary building (shades of colors) discussion of the physical and cultural phenomenon of the rainbow practice of literary analysis discussion of various disabilities

Dragonfly 2014/25

The classroom should be rearranged to make enough room for the students to stand in a circle.

Activities Ss and the T stand in a circle. The T forms his/ her hand as if s/he were holding an invisible, small ball. But there is nothing in her hand.

T: I have a small ball in my hand, the kind that bounces easily. It is very light. Can you all see it?’

TIP Use a lot of humor, jokes and pranks in this exercise to make it more enjoyable.

T looks around, making eye contact, smiling. Thus she indicates that although the ball is invisible, Ss are expected to play along and act as if it were really there.

T: We are going to throw the ball to one another. Please, choose the person you want to pass the ball to and make eye contact before throwing so that everybody can be certain the ball will be received.

Please use your hands properly: throw and catch the ball. Remember, it is really light and bouncy. In case somebody is not paying attention and the ball falls, you have to pick it up. Mind the window! When throwing the ball you have to say your own first name, introducing yourself to the person you have chosen. Make sure everybody has a chance to throw and to catch the ball.

2. Color Ball

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After the first round the T congratulates on the excellent ball sense of the participants.

T: In the next round you have to introduce yourselves by adding a color to your name. The color has to start with the same sound (or letter) as your first name, e.g. Betty Blue. This is called ‘alliteration’.

Can you all think of such a color?

TIP Before starting the round make sure everybody can do the exercise quickly. If students have difficulties finding a color, first ask the group to make suggestions, but be ready to help with the following list: A – amber, almond; B - blue, beige; C – cyclamen, canary yellow; D – dark blue, deep lilac; E – egg shell, ecru, ebony; F – fawn, forest green; G – green, gold, ginger, grey; H – hot pink; I – imperial, indigo, ivory; J – jet black, jungle green; K – khaki; L – lavender, lemon yellow, light blue, lime green; M – magenta, maroon, mauve, maize; N – navy blue, neon green; O – orange, ochre, olive; P – pink, purple, pale blue, peach; R – red, rose, raspberry pink; S – silver, saffron, sand, scarlet; T – tangerine, teal, turquoise; V – violet; W – white, wine; Y– yellow; Z - you can make up a fantasy name, e.g. zen white or Zulu brown.

Ss pass around the invisible ball once again and introduce themselves (Peter Purple, Ivy Ivory).

T: Now that everybody has taken a turn, please remember the color you have chosen for yourself and form a rainbow, starting from the color red to violet. Can you list the order of the colors in the rainbow?

If two students have the same name or names starting with the same sound, the T should try to have them use different colors, but it should not be a strict rule.

S: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

TIP

T: Very good. Now form the rainbow. If some of you feel you do not fit in the rainbow (e.g. gold, brown, white, grey, black) stand outside of the rainbow in a group. You will be the Sun, the source of light, as light contains all the colors (and black is the lack of light). You should make sure that the different shades come in the right order (e.g. Lily Lime Green should stand closer to Saffron Sam than Julie Jungle Green).

The T can ask students what they know about the significance of the rainbow in different cultures e.g. in Greek mythology Iris was a messenger, in the Bible it is the sign of the covenant, in Japanese mythology it is the gods’ path to the Earth, in Scandinavian mythology the souls of the dead were carried on its bridge to the afterlife.

Ss form a semicircle.

T: As you can see this could really be a circle, as the two ends of the

2. Color Ball

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rainbow (red and violet) are close to each other.

T: Please, sit down everybody. Let’s read the poem Color circle!

Read it for yourself quietly!

TIP See the poem in rough translation in the Appendix.

T: What does this poem tell you? What is it about?

Ss mention seasons, colors, different senses and emotions.

T: Yes, very good. How many persons are there in the poem?

S: Two: you and me.

T: Can you make a difference between these two people? Are they different in any way?

S: One of them sees only the colors, the other has a more complex understanding of the world.

T: Yes, excellent. Let’s look at the first line of the second stanza.

“For you it’s red – for me it’s round, fragrant and sweet” What sensory organs can you name that these two people use?

S: Eyes to see the color red. The other person uses his fingers to touch, his nose to smell and his mouth to taste.

T: Yes, very good. Now look at the other lines of the second stanza again. Think of the sensory organs and tell me what difference you find between these two people.

Ss at this point tend to realize that the poem is really about a blind person’s understanding of the world. Until this happens the teacher should help them by asking questions.

T: Now, as you have very cleverly pointed out, this poem can be interpreted as a dialogue between a blind person and somebody who can see. This is the key that will help you open the hidden meaning of the poem. Read it once more and see if it tells you something else now.

The T initiates a conversation about how we see disabled people.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this activity?

Students are invited to share their ideas.

2. Color Ball

TIP Possible questions: 1. What kind of disabilities can you name?

Ss are likely to say e.g. blindness, autism, some people cannot walk and use wheelchair etc. The T might mention physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental disabilities to widen the range.

2. Do you think we should feel sorry for these people?

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T: Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed it.

It’s important to point out that disabled people usually prefer acceptance to sympathy.

3. Do you think a healthy person can imagine what it feels like to be disabled, e.g. blind?

No, and it is quite unnecessary to try. You do not have to feel what they feel to be open and understanding towards them.

4. How can we help these people?

By integrating them in the everyday life of our community. Students should make a todo list.

TIP See a task connected to this activity in the Appendix.

2. Color Ball

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3. Common grounds Overview This activity combines literature, civics and environmental education to develop the students’ responsibility towards their community

Civics / Math / Science / Arts 4th grade (9y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

Materials Dragonfly 2013/24

Objectives § § § § § § § §

developing mathematical skills developing grammatical skills (possessive pronouns) developing movement coordination practicing of literary analysis developing communication skills discussion of group dynamics discussion of personal responsibility and the rules of the community discussion of practical environmental protection

Activities Chairs are arranged at random, facing different directions.

Everybody takes a seat. Unoccupied chairs must be removed. The T sits among the student. When everybody is comfortable, the T stands up, walks away from her / his chair and faces the students.

T: Okay, so everybody has a seat? Great. The truth is, I am really tired today and I would like to sit down. I went to work out last night and I feel really stiff. I guess I am just too old. So I really need to sit down. But I know you are a very mean bunch of students and would do anything to stop me, right?

Other Resources The classroom should be rearranged to make enough room for the activity.

Stop-watch Handout (See Appendix)

TIP The chairs should not stand in a circle or a line because that makes the activity dull.

TIP The T should make fun of her /himself and use jokes to set the atmosphere for a competitive game.

Well, you can stop me, but there are some rules you have to stick to.

I will try to sit down on an empty chair. I am going to move real slow and calm.

Rule No 1: You can stop me by sitting down faster on the empty chair. I will not sit in your lap, I can promise you that.

Rule No 2: If you rise to move and then change your mind you cannot

3. Common grounds

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sit back on the same chair, you have to move on to another place.

Rule No 3: You cannot push me from a chair. Please, be gentle!

Okay, can we start? I am going to measure the time in seconds. Let’s see how long it takes me to sit down.

In the first round it generally takes 10-15 seconds to find an empty chair.

TIP The T should pay attention to the communication of the students but should avoid making comments at this point.

T: Okay, guys, that was really quick. I’m sure you can do better than that. What do you think the problem was?

Ss usually mention lack of attention or communicational problems.

T: Well, if you think that helps I give you three minutes to work out a strategy.

Ss tend to spend at least two minutes by analyzing the situation. After the T’s warning two or three different suggestions are made and they choose one.

TIP After two minutes the T should warn the students that they only have one minute left.

TIP The T should keep in mind whose suggestion was accepted.

T: Okay, time is up! Let’s see how long it takes now!

The second round is always worse than the first, generally 8–9 seconds.

T: Well, are you satisfied with your result? No? What do you think happened?

Ss explain that some of them did not understand the strategy or did not concentrate enough.

T: Do you think you would be more successful if I gave you more time for discussion? Yes? What do you think will be your result?

Will it be over one minute? Yes? All right, I give you three more minutes to talk about your strategy.

After the discussion, the third round is generally still under 30 seconds.

T: Well, guys, I’m sorry to say but you have not fulfilled your promise. You were still under one minute. But I have to tell you something. I have played this game many times, but I have never ever met anyone who had a result over one minute. What could be the reason?

Ss suggest the T is well-practiced or moves too quickly.

3. Common grounds

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T: You are very kind to suggest I am so good at this, but let me ask you a question. Do you think your strategy was a good one?

Ss express their opinion.

T: Do you think it is possible to form a strategy in a few minutes according to which 25 people move around randomly? Think about the class dance you practiced for weeks – and that movement wasn’t even random.

Can you think of another way of moving around in a group?

Ss mention that if a leader tells everybody what to do, it is easier to move around.

T: Yes, that is a possibility. I wonder if you noticed whose idea this strategy was.

Ss say it was e.g. Fred’s idea.

T: And why did you accept Fred’s idea to be the strategy you all follow?

Ss make different explanations, e.g. Fred was the loudest, he is usually good at such things, he said it in a way they could all understand.

T: Okay, so what you are saying is that you trust Fred, because you know him to be a reliable leader and he expressed himself in a way that was agreeable for you: he was loud, confident and articulate.

How about the others? Can you remember the way you communicated during the game? Were you patient and kind to each other?

Ss remember shouting, telling each other off, swearing.

T: Well, I can certainly understand your excitement, because you wanted to win so much, but can you think of nicer ways of encouragement? What could you have said and how could you have said it?

TIP The T can point out that you can utter the very same sentence with totally different meaning by changing the intonation or using body language. Ss can practice this in pairs.

Ss list a few examples.

T: Well done. Now let’s look at the poem Public affairs. I give you a few minutes to read it. What do you think about it?

Ss find it funny.

3. Common grounds

The poem can be read in English in the Appendix, here only a few lines are quoted.

3

T: I agree it’s funny. How old do you think this kid is? I guess he must be around your age. Have you ever felt like this kid?

Ss give a few examples of similar situations.

T: Yes, I have also had similar experience, I think we all have. I would like you to look at the poem again and list a few things that this kid thought was his. I will put them on the blackboard.

Ss dictate: castle, little brother, toys, birthday cake…

T: Well done. Now let’s see what he has to share with others.

Ss dictate: jungle gym, Mummy, toys, birthday cake…

“When I was little I pushed the small ones from the jungle gym at the playground 'cause it was MY castle, but I was scolded terribly as the jungle gym is OURS which means it is not MINE ....

When my little brother was born I was not allowed to suckle Mummy, even though she is OUR Mummy, but all MY toys became immediately OURS when that little pig coveted them ....

MY birthday cake had to be shared with all the guests when I wanted to eat it although I've never heard of a shared birthday, that must be really rare because you cannot time your birth like they time the bomb in films”

T: Okay. As you can see, some of the things are the same in the two lists, because he wants to own them alone, but the circumstances force him to share them. Now I would like you to think about the things you own alone. Give me a few examples.

The T puts the examples on the blackboard.

T: And now tell me about things you share with your classmates.

The T puts the examples on the blackboard.

T: Great. Now look at those two lists and tell me which of these things you think you care for and tend to most.

TIP Ss might need a little help here, so the T can start by pointing at herself, suggesting that students must share her attention. The T can use body language to help the Ss, e.g. breathing deeply and loudly will help them realize that they share the air of the classroom.

Ss make a list.

T: And which do you think you don’t care about?

Ss at this point might realize that they tend to pay more attention to things they own alone and care less about things they share.

T: There is a proverb, I wonder if you know it: “The common horse is worst shod.” Can somebody explain to me what it means?

S: That if a lot of people use the same thing it won’t last long.

T: Do you think it’s true? Can you give me an example?

Ss list examples.

T: Okay. I would like to tell you a little tale, listen carefully. Once upon a time, there was a little village. The village had a small common pasture, rich with green grass. Ten farmers lived in the village and they each had one cow that grazed on the common

3. Common grounds

TIP The T can tell the Ss that the story is from an essay by the American ecologist Garrett Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons, published in Science in 1968.

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pasture. They were all very happy and content because all the cows gave 10 liters of milk every day. But one day one of the farmers had an idea. He wanted to have two cows so that he could have twice as much milk and cheese and butter. He thought the common pasture had such rich green grass that one more cow would not really make a difference. So the next day there were eleven cows on the common pasture, and although the grass was really rich and green, that day each cow had a little less to eat. So that day they only gave 9 liters of milk. Another farmer thought hard about what his fellow had done.

“What a clever chap my neighbor is! He is going to have a huge amount of milk and cheese and butter! After all, I could do the same, couldn’t I? The pasture is so rich and green, one more cow will make little difference.” So the next day twelve cows grazed the common pasture, and although the grass was really rich and green, that day each cow had a little less to eat than the day before. So that day they only gave 8 liters of milk. And it goes on and on…

I’m not going to tell you the whole story but I would like you to sit in fours and discuss two questions. Please, try to have an answer in 5 minutes.

1. How long is it worth for a farmer to have two cows grazing on the common pasture?

2. What happens if a farmer realizes that this practice is dangerous and goes back to have one cow in the pasture?

Ss discuss the questions.

T: So who would like to share the solution?

S: After the fourth farmer it isn’t worth it, because when the fifth farmer has two cows, the two cows will only yield 5 liters each, which is 10 liters, so it’s the same amount as at the beginning, when he had one cow. And two cows mean double work, so it’s not worth it.

T: Okay, that seems logical. What do the others think? Do you agree?

Yes? Well, let’s look at my first question again. “How long is it worth for a farmer to have two cows grazing on the common pasture?” Now, you all think that the fifth farmer would be a fool to break the rule of the community and have two cows grazing on the common pasture. But if he decides to be honest that means that he will always have half the amount of milk of the farmers who break the rule. Just think about it: even if the cows give less and less milk every day, two cows would always have double amount. Does that

3. Common grounds

TIP It is better to put the questions on the board or hand them out on a piece of paper.

TIP Ss might object on the grounds that biologically the story is not correct. The T must acknowledge that and say that it is a parable and numbers are made easy so that doing the maths can be easy. Ss very often joke that the first farmer should be beaten up or punished. The T should ask them to accept the situation as it is and promise to get back to the solution later.

TIP There is a table in the Appendix that might help Ss do the maths in this activity. Each group of four can have a handout with the table and the two questions.

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mean that it is a good idea to break the rules of the community?

Think about the end of the story.

Ss: No, because eventually there will no milk in the village.

T: Exactly. Now let’s look at the board. We put all kinds of things there that we share, e. g. air, water, soil. Think about the village in the story. What happens if we substitute the common pasture for some of these things?

Ss: We use all these things together, but some people don’t care about these things so much and they pollute the air or the water.

T: Yes, unfortunately that happens a lot. If you were one of the farmers in the village what would you do in this situation?

Ss first generally joke about beating up the first rule breaker. Then they point out that general discussion and persuasion might convince the rule breaker that the good of the community is also his personal interest.

T: Excellent. Let’s look at the second question. “What happens if a farmer realizes that this practice is dangerous and goes back to have one cow in the pasture?”

TIP The T should laugh with the students but point out that aggression is not a valid solution because it only generates more aggression.

TIP The T might have to help Ss frame this opinion with questions. It is more effective to let the students say it out loud.

Ss: If he is alone, nothing will happen, he will have less milk.

T: So what should such a well-meaning, clever farmer do?

Ss: He should persuade the other farmers to see the good of the community.

T: Well, I can see that you would all be very clever and conscientious farmers. Let’s look at the board again and think about the things we share. How can we protect these things? What have you learnt from the farmers’ example?

Ss: If you are alone, you cannot be effective, you have to find partners, you have to convince your community.

T: Yes, very good. Can you give an example?

Ss mention examples, e.g. various NGOs that deal with environmental protection.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this activity?

3. Common grounds

6

Students are invited to share their ideas.

T: Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed the activity.

3. Common grounds

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4. How to Tame Your Dragon Overview This activity aims to develop the students’ interest in creative writing.

Reading / Creative Writing 3rd grade (8y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

Materials Dragonfly 2014/25

Objectives § § § § §

developing creative writing skills developing communicational skills practice of literary analysis developing the students’ knowledge of literary tropes developing the students’ attention span

Other Resources

Activities T: Today we are going to talk about dragons. I brought you a picture.

Do you know what is on it?

S: It’s from the movie How to Train Your Dragon.

T: Yes, have you seen it? Can you tell me who are in the picture?

S: There is a Viking boy who doesn’t want to fight dragons like all the other Vikings, and he finds a dragon and tames it.

T: Well done! This boy, Hiccup is not like all the other kids in the Viking village, but as you know, the heroes and heroines of interesting stories are usually special in some way. For example there is a very strange princess in Dragonfly. Can you find her? Read the poem on the page!

Ss find the picture and the poem Dragon at Home. This funny poem is about an evil princess who kidnaps a dragon and keeps it locked up in her castle until a brave knight helps it escape.

T: I heard you laugh. Do you think this poem is funny? Why? Ss explain that the story differs from ordinary fairy tales on several

4. How to Tame Your Dragon

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points.

T: Very good! So you’re saying it’s funny because it’s not what we would expect. Can you list what is strange?

TIP See table in Appendix.

S: It’s usually the dragon who kidnaps the princess and locks her up and the knight escapes with the princess.

T: You are right, this is what we can usually read in the fairy tales.

So this poem is humorous because it shows something unexpected, it twists around the usual plot of fairy tales. But I wonder how well you know the usual plot of fairy tales.

As you can see, I drew a table on the board. You are going to work in fours. Please, copy the table in your exercise book. You will have five minutes to write at least three characters or things in each column. In the first column I would like you to write the usual heroes or heroines of fairy tales. In the second, you should write evil characters, in the third anybody who helps the heroes or heroines, in the fourth the instruments the heroes or heroine use in their adventures and in the last column you should write places where fairy tales happen. Please think about all the well-known fairy tales you read or were read to you when you were small.

Ss fill out the table.

T: Okay, let’s hear a few examples! What do you have at Heroes and Heroines? etc.

Ss read out what they wrote in their tables.

T: Well done! I must say you are very well informed, so I think you are ready for what I have in mind. I would like all of us to make up a fairy tale right now. We don’t have to put it down, but we all have to take it very seriously, otherwise it will not work.

The rules are the following: I will start the tale with a sentence. If you think you can continue, put up your hand. You can only add one sentence at a time. Everybody will have just one opportunity to add a sentence, so if you have used it up, please, restrain yourself. You can look at your table to help you with characters, instruments or places, but you have to be very imaginative. Try not to repeat the usual plots of fairy tales, but twist them around to make it funny like the poem we read about the dragon. Also, you have to pay attention to what has been said before you and take all the details into consideration.

4. How to Tame Your Dragon

TIP Depending on the number of students, we can take this rule seriously (if there are a lot students it’s important to let everybody talk once) or be a bit lenient.

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Okay, are all the rules clear? Listen carefully!

Once upon a time, there was a queen and she had three goats‌ Ss continue the story.

T: We only have three more sentences to finish the story. Who comes next?

TIP The T must call the students’ attention to mistakes by asking question, e. g. If it was a queen at the beginning of our story, how come she changed into a princess? Julie said the second goat was eaten by a giant, so how can it be wandering in the desert?

Ss finish the story.

T: Are you satisfied with our story? Shall we give ourselves a big applause? Well done!

Applause.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this lesson?

Ss are invited to share their ideas.

T: Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed it.

4. How to Tame Your Dragon

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5. Edible plants

Science/ Arts 3rd grade (8y) up Participants

Overview This activity combines science and art to develop the students’ responsibility towards their natural environment and community.

20–25 students, teacher

Materials

Objectives Dragonfly 2013/23

§ § § § § §

vocabulary building (plant names) practicing grouping of edible plants (e.g. herbs, fruits, vegetables) building knowledge of plants (edible or not, what they look like, what dishes can be made from them) discussion of personal responsibility in a consumer society discussion of the importance of biodiversity practicing design and drawing

Other Resources sheets of paper color pencils or markers handout of plants (see Appendix) guides, picture dictionaries on plants

§

Activities T: Please, sit in groups of four. We are going to start this activity with a competition. You are going to work in groups, and I suggest you choose one of you in each group to take notes. The task is really simple: I wonder how many edible plants you know. I give you three minutes, try to put down as many as possible.

Ss work in groups for three minutes.

T: Okay, please count how many plants you have. Which group has the most? Right, now listen carefully! I’m not sure this group will win, because this competition is not just about how many edible plants you know. No, that would be really too simple. What I’m really interested in is the number of edible plants that the others never thought of! So each group will get one point for any plant that the other groups have not put down. We will start with the group that wrote the most names. Julie, please, start reading out the plant names one by one. If any of the other groups have the same name, please yell: ‘Got it!’ and then you should all cross out that plant.

Julie reads out the names one by one, she crosses out the names when others yell ‘Got it!’. Then the other groups read out the plant names that have not been mentioned yet. In the end each group counts what is left, generally it is not more than 5-6 names.

5. Edible plants

TIP The T must decide whether varieties of plants are considered one species or not. E.g. when a student says ‘melon’, should both water melon and musk-melon be crossed out? Is sour cherry the same as cherry? How about mint and peppermint? Are slang words accepted?

TIP See test in the Appendix. If students are older, more difficult and surprising plant names can be found on the net if you google ‘edible plants’.

TIP The T should be prepared to say exactly how and which part of these plants are to be consumed. Here are few examples to help:

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T: Well done! I think it is really interesting that there were so few plants only one of you thought of. You seem to think similarly. Why do you think that is?

Ss give various explanations, e.g. they know these plants because they go to the same shops in town, they have similar eating habits, cultural and gastronomic traditions.

T: Yes, you are right. Do you remember how your mind worked when listing these plants?

Some students usually mention grouping the plants.

chamomile: tea pansy: petals as salad cattail: new shoots rose: petal jam violet: leaves and flowers in salad yucca: flower in salad carnation: petals in liqueur, desserts nettles: young leaves dried or cooked marigold: petals in soup dandelion: raw or steamed, e.g. in rice seaweed: cooked in soup, wrap for sushi beechnut: ground into flour gooseberry: fruit daisy: in salads cactus: prickly pear

T: Very good. Whenever you have to make a list, it is a good idea to do it systematically, for example you can put them in groups. What groups can you think of?

Ss: Fruits, vegetables, herbs.

T: Excellent! Where would you put mushrooms?

Ss: It’s a vegetable.

T: I’m afraid it isn’t. The truth is, it isn’t even a plant, so it was a trick question. Biologically speaking mushrooms are in a different kingdom from plants, just like animals are different. These groups are called kingdoms, I think it is very beautiful, like in a fairy tales, don’t you think?

Now let me test you a little. Each group will have a list of various plant names. Please decide if the plants are edible in any form or not and put a tick in the right column! I’ll give you five minutes.

Ss work in groups.

T: Okay, so let’s check it together, we’ll go one by one. Do you think chamomile is edible? Yes, for example you can make nice tea from it. How about pansy? Etc. Okay, so as you can see, all the plants on your list are edible. How many have you guessed?

Well done! Which was the most surprising? Which of these have you ever tasted?

Let’s return to the list you made at the beginning of the activity. How come you did not mention roses or nettles?

Ss explain that they did not know they were edible, or if they did, they 5. Edible plants

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have never or rarely eaten these.

T: What do you think determines what we eat?

Ss list their mom’s cooking habits, their preferences, cultural traditions, the materials available in shops and markets.

T: Yes, you are right. Let me tell you something. The fourth most important food crop on our Earth is potato. Have you all eaten potato? I bet you have. If you go to the shop or the market with your mom how many different potatoes can you buy?

TIP The first three are wheat, rice and maize.

Ss usually say one, two or three if their mom buys different varieties for cooking, frying or salads.

T: This might be surprising, but believe me: there are thousands of different potato varieties in the world. They differ in size, color, and taste. Why do you think we cannot buy them in our home town?

Ss might mention industrial production, delivery, marketing considerations, cultural needs.

T: Okay, you made some very good points to prove that it is easier to grow a few variations. Now let’s think the other way round! Can you think of any reasons why it is good to have a lot of variations?

S: Because if something happens to one of them, we still have all the others.

T: Yes, excellent! We have very sad tales about such events, for example you might have heard of the Great Potato Famine in Ireland in the nineteenth century that was started by a fungus.

However, we can avoid or lessen the devastating effects of such pests with biodiversity. I put this word on the board because I would like all of you to learn it. ‘Bio’ means life in Greek, think of words like ‘biology’, the study of life or ‘biography’, the story of somebody’s life. ‘Diversity’ means the several different variations of something.

So ‘biodiversity’ is the variation of life, and the richer it is, the healthier and stronger life is.

Biodiversity, however, does not only refer to plants and animals, but people as well. Let’s look around! There are 25 people in this classroom including me, and I bet we can find twice as many differences in five minutes! Let’s work in fours! List all the differences between the four of you: outer looks, skills, characteristics, interests, habits. If only one out of the four of you is different in some way, it still counts!

TIP If students have no idea about the reasons, the T should ask questions to help them think. E.g. Are the plants you buy in shops grown in small gardens or on large stretches of land? How far are these lands from our town? Are they in our country? How are they delivered here? How long does it take to get them here? Where are they stored and for how long?

TIP If students cannot find reasons, the T should ask questions, e.g. What happens if some sort of pest attacks a variety? Do you think it is safe to have only one variety of a plant?

TIP In the summer of 1845 a fungus destroyed most of the potato crop of Ireland. Over the next ten years, more than 750,000 Irish died and another 2 million left their homeland for Great Britain, Canada, and the United States.

The Irish population was reduced by a quarter. The Irish potato famine was not simply a natural disaster. Under British rule, Irish Catholics were prohibited from entering the professions or even purchasing land. Many Irish rented small plots of land from absentee British protestant landlords.

Half of all landholdings were less than 5 acres. Irish peasants subsisted on a diet consisting largely of potatoes, since a farmer could grow triple the amount of potatoes as grain on the same plot of land. A single acre of potatoes could support a family for a year.

About half of Ireland's population depended on potatoes for subsistence.

Ss work in fours for five minutes then they read out some of the 5. Edible plants

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differences.

T: Well done! See, we are all very different in a lot of ways. Do you think it would be better if we were all the same?

S: It would be very boring.

T: Yes, boring and also very impractical. For example if all of you were on the same level in Math, who would help you write the homework? And if all of you could run just as fast as the others, a running competition wouldn’t be very exciting, would it?

Now I would like you to continue working in fours. Look at the illustration of Edible Plants in Dragonfly. We are going to make a somewhat similar garden.

Please choose the one who can draw best in your group, s/he will be the designer. One of you put your hand on a sheet of paper, and the designer will draw its contour on the paper. Use a marker. Okay, this will be the group’s garden. I’ll give you 15 minutes to work on your garden. You can decide what you want to plant, but they all have to be edible plants. You can use your notes from the beginning of the activity if you want and there are some guides and dictionaries on plants to help you with images. You have to plant (to draw) five plants in the five fingers and arrange a little picnic in the palm where you invite all your neighbors in the other groups to taste the dishes you made from your plants. You can write notes next to the fingers or around your garden. Please, write an invitation on a separate sheet of paper and describe what kind of dish you are offering.

Ss work in fours, in the end the gardens and the invitations are put on the wall and students walk around viewing each other’s work.

T: Okay, now I would like you to choose the invitation you liked best and stand in line in front of it. Let’s see who will have the most guests, who is the best neighbor!

Ss stand in line and the group that has the most guests gets an ovation.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this exercise?

Students are invited to share their ideas.

Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed the activity.

5. Edible plants

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6. Nobody Expects the Inquisition!

Overview This creative activity aims to develop the students’ understanding of science.

Science / History/ Reading / Writing 4th grade (9y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

Materials Dragonfly 2012/20

Objectives § § §

developing the scientific knowledge of students developing reading and writing skills developing vocabulary (synonyms)

Other Resources Picture of Galileo The classroom should be rearranged to make enough room for the activity

Activities T: Look at this picture. Who do you think it can be?

S: A famous man who lived hundreds of years ago.

T: Look at his face. What do you think his occupation was?

Ss make guesses.

T: He was an Italian scientist, some even think he was the father of modern science. His name was Galileo Galilei. Have you ever heard of him?

Ss make comments.

T: He lived in the 16th and 17th centuries and he was a physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher. When somebody is good at so many things, we call him a ‘polymath’. This Greek word means somebody who has studied a lot. At that time most people believed that the Earth (Geo) was the centre of the universe, but Galileo thought the Earth and other planets revolved around the Sun (Helios). He wrote books and gave lectures to advocate this view. At that time the Catholic church had an organization, the Inquisition that supervised what people said or wrote and they were very angry with Galileo. The Roman Catholic Inquisition considered him a heretic and said heliocentrism was contrary to the teachings of the Bible, so it cannot be true. The

6. Nobody Expects the Inquisition!

TIP The T should put on the board the words ‘heliocentrism’ and ‘geocentrism’.

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Inquisition was very powerful at that time. They banned his books.

He was forced to withdraw his teachings and lived under house arrest till the end of his life. Some of works were banned for almost two hundred years. Fortunately, we now know that he was right on the question of heliocentrism and the Inquisition was wrong.

Let’s play a game! I would like all of you to look around and silently choose somebody who will be your Galileo. As you are all very eager, young scholars, you want somebody to teach you, somebody you can follow. Please, don’t say who you have chosen. Now choose another person to be your Inquisitior. As you are all clever scholars who want to speak and write freely, you will try to avoid the Inquisition as much as possible. Now I would like you to walk around the classroom. Try to get as close to your Galileo as possible, while trying to keep as far from your Inquisitior as possible. Stay safe!

Ss run around.

T: Well done, sit down, please! I could see it was tricky, because some of you chose a Galileo who chose you to be the Inquisitior, right?

Okay, the thing is, we should help Galileo with his work. There are some famous quotations that he allegedly said, and we should help him paraphrase them, so that the Inquisition would leave him alone.

Of course we do not want to change the meaning, only use different words that have the same meaning. For example if he wrote ‘nice’ we could substitute it with ‘beautiful’. Or if he wrote ‘ugly’, we can say ‘plain’. These are called synonyms.

TIP The T should put on the blackboard the word ‘synonym’.

I will put the first sentence on the board and underline the words that we should change.

The Earth revolves around the Sun. Can you think of another way of saying this?

S: Our home /blue planet moves /orbits around the centre of the Solar System / the huge star of hydrogen and helium.

TIP All fairly acceptable solutions must be acknowledged, but the T should be prepared to have at least two different versions.

T: Great. I will put two more sentences of Galileo on the board.

Please work in pairs and write your solutions in your exercise-books.

Be careful not to use the underlined words, otherwise the Inquisition will find you!

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something 6. Nobody Expects the Inquisition!

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from him.

The great Book of Nature is written in mathematical language.

Ss work in pairs then read out their solutions.

T: Okay, now let’s read the article in Dragonfly. Ben, please start with the first sentence.

Each student reads a sentence.

T: I put some names mentioned in the article on the blackboard. Can you tell me who these people were?

Jókai Mór, Simonyi Károly, Vincenzio Galilei Ss give answers.

T: Yes, thank you. I’d like you to read the quotation from Galileo in the last paragraph once again: “It is excruciating to see that this sky, this world, this universe that my wonderful observations and clear demonstrations expanded hundred- and thousandfold compared to what all the scientists of past centuries before me saw is now so small and compressed for me that it is hardly bigger than the space I myself take up.” In the article we read about his controversial character. Can you prove it from this quotation?

TIP Possible solutions, e.g.: I have never met anybody so stupid that he couldn’t teach me anything. / The environment can be described by the study of algebra, arithmetic and geometry.

TIP Jókai Mór: Hungarian novelist and dramatist.

Simonyi Károly: Hungarian physicist and author of the popular book A Cultural History of Physics.

Vincenzio Galileo: Galileo’s father, Italian merchant.

Ss express their opinion.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this lesson?

Students are invited to share their ideas.

T: Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed the activity.

6. Nobody Expects the Inquisition!

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7. Let’s color nothing!

Overview

Arts and Crafts /Civics 3rd grade (8y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

This activity combines arts and crafts with storytelling to develop the students’ communication skills and their understanding of the community.

Materials

Objectives

Other Resources

§ § § §

developing communication skills developing fine motor skills discussion of personal responsibility in the community discussion of surface-tension

Dragonfly 2010/9

magazine pictures of various people (old, middle-aged, youngsters, children) Post-it pens

Activities

thin wire

T: I put a lot of pictures on this table, please, come here and choose one. As you can see, there are all kinds of people in the pictures.

Please make up a name for the person in your picture, write it on a Post-it in capital letters and put it on your picture. Try to put the Post-it on one of the corners so that we can still see the character in the picture.

various colored nail polish

Well done, now let’s what we have here. Susan, would you come out with your picture? Please, introduce your character!

Pictures should be as provocative and different as possible to make the activity interesting.

colored plasticine newspaper to cover the desks

TIP

Susan: This is Mrs Rich.

T: Okay, you don’t have to explain why, we can all see that she is wearing really expensive stuff. Now let’s imagine that she is your neighbor. What would you say when you meet her?

Susan: I’d say ‘Good morning, Mrs Rich’.

T: Would you, really? Do you always say the name of your neighbors when you say hello?

Susan: Right, I’d probably just say ‘Good morning’.

T: Thank you, Susan, I appreciate your honesty. Please, sit down.

Peter, you have quite a different character. Would you please show 7. Let’s color nothing!

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us who it is?

Peter: This is John Brown.

T: Why do you call him Brown?

Peter: Because he looks dirty and he could be anybody.

T: What would you say to him if you met him?

Peter: Nothing.

T: And if he were your neighbor?

Peter. Well, I don’t know, I might say ‘good morning’ if I knew him.

There are people like this in our neighborhood but I never talk to them.

T: Thank you Peter, please, sit down. Now I would like all of you to walk around the classroom with the pictures in your hand. Say hello to as many people as you can in five minutes, but when meeting a classmate please imagine he or she is the person in the picture. So try to say hello to the picture, not your classmate and act out a little. But it is important that you stay yourself, you do not have to act as the person in your own picture. Okay, is that clear?

Ss move around talking.

TIP If the T decides to spend more time on this activity, it is a good idea to refrain from telling students what they should and shouldn’t feel and think about the homeless. It’s better to let them express their ideas and feelings and to generate a healthy debate between them by asking questions.

TIP Instruction should be very clear. There should be enough room for the exercise.

Take into consideration that it naturally generates a certain amount of noise that cannot be avoided.

T: Well done, thank you. Who would like to talk about the experience? Lisa?

Lisa: I had this very ugly looking, poor man on my picture and only very few people would say hello to me.

T: What did the others do?

Lisa: They tried to avoid me. Even when I said hello to them, they would not return it. It was really annoying.

T: Thank you, Lisa. I would like all of you to realize that you can hurt people by saying or doing nothing. Sure, when anybody asks you if you hurt Lisa’s man, you can just say that you did nothing, you said nothing. But neglect can be really hurtful.

Let’s look at a picture in Dragonfly. As you can see, these are not ordinary bird feeders, because there are many birds in each one. Do you think these birds are good neighbors? Yes? What makes you think so?

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S: Because they talk to each other.

TIP

T: Yes, they look really happy, right? Let’s read the second paragraph from the article.

This paragraph describes a lonely old lady, the neighbor of the author.

T: I can very well imagine that if anybody asked the old lady or the author of this article what they were talking about, they would say ‘oh, nothing’. But all these little nothings make a big something.

See the text in the Appendix.

I’ll give you another example. Has it ever happened to you that you went home from school, and your Mum, Dad or somebody else asked you what happened? Yes? And what do you say?

Some of the students generally say “nothing”.

T: Alicia, you said ‘nothing’. Now let’s think about it for a second. Is it true that nothing happens to you in school?

Alicia: Nothing worth telling.

T: Okay, but are you sure this is your message when you say ‘nothing’? You can say one word in so many different ways. How would you say ‘nothing’ to your Mum’s question, Alicia? Show us!

Alicia utters the word indifferently.

T: Okay, great, that was really boring, so I guess there was really not much to tell. Can anybody say “nothing” in a different way? For example it can mean ‘I don’t want to talk about it’. Or ‘I don’t want to talk to you, leave me alone’.

Ss try to say ‘nothing’ in different ways.

T: Well done! Now tell me what should happen in school that would encourage you to speak about it at home! How about a dragon landing on the school yard? Would that be interesting enough? That would be cool, right? Can you think of other things?

Ss mention other wild fantasies.

T: Well, I’m sorry to say but there is not much chance of a dragon or a spaceship landing on the yard. Still, next time your parents ask you about what happened in school, you might think about what and how you answer. Because nothing is really something.

And to prove this, I will show you how you can color nothing.

Please, cover your desks with these sheets of newspaper and help me distribute all the things we need. Each of you will get a piece of thin

7. Let’s color nothing!

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wire. There are all kinds of colored plasticine here, choose any color you like and take a piece, the size of a peanut is enough. Also, choose any of the nail polish you like. You can swap those around, but be careful and always screw the lid back. I wouldn’t like any of you to ruin your clothes.

Okay, now let me show you what to do. We are going to turn this piece of wire into a little flower. Take the wire and fold one of the ends back to form a tiny petal. It should be the size a lentil, don’t make it any bigger. Decide how many petals you want for your flower and make as many tiny loops on the wire. You can arrange them according to your wish. You can also make a small leaf on the stem of your flower. Leave at least 2 centimeters of the wire at the other end and stick it into the plasticine. Now take the nail polish and put a drop of paint on each petal. You can use different colors for each petal. You might have to repeat it a few times and you have to use enough paint because what we really color here is nothing: it is thin air. Due to the law of surface-tension the nail polish spreads in the tiny loops of wire. Let it dry, it will take a few minutes.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this exercise?

Students are invited to share their ideas.

Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed the activity.

7. Let’s color nothing!

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8. Robots Overview This creative activity aims to develop the students’ interest in science.

Science / Maths / Arts 3rd grade (8y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

Materials Dragonfly 2013/23

Objectives § § § §

developing the scientific knowledge of students developing mathematical skills (measurements) developing communicational skills developing fine motor skills and creativity

Other Resources Small pieces of Lego in plastic bags, 25-30 pieces in each bag.

Activities T: Today we are going to talk about robots. Can you find the article on robots in Dragonfly?

S: It’s on page 44, Robot World.

T: Yes, thank you. Please look at the pictures but do not read the text yet. What do you think this article is about?

Ss express various opinions: e.g. a world where only robots live, how we make robots, the inside of a robot, what robots are for, etc.

T: Excellent, very good. These could all be included, and I hope some of you will not be disappointed, but it’s not a science fiction story. It is about how robots are made and what they are used for. A little later we are going to read some of it, but first I would like to know what you think. What are robots for?

Ss describe various tasks.

T: Okay, well done. Now let’s read the sixth paragraph of the article, starting “The shape of the robots is determined by their function…”

Got it? Okay, there are some strange words here: nano-robot, nanomachines and nanometer. And here is says that one nanometre is the one-billionth of a meter. Wow, it’s a bit difficult to imagine, right?

Let’s help our imagination a little, okay? Can you show me how long

8. Robots

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one meter is? Show me with your hands! Very good, now show me one centimeter. Okay, well done. Can you tell me how many centimeters make a metrer? Yes, a hundred, it is in its name, because in Latin a hundred is ‘centum’. You can also find it in the word ‘century’, it means a hundred years. Okay, the next may be a bit tricky but let’s try it. Can you show me how long one millimeter is?

Use your fingers! Yes, it’s really very tiny. How many millimeters are in one meter? Yes, a thousand. The Latin word ‘milia’ means ‘thousand’, for example ‘millennium’ means a thousand years. Well, you all knew about these, but can anybody tell me what we call an even smaller measurement? What is the thousandth of a millimeter?

Depending on the age of the students they either know about micrometers or not.

T: It is called micrometer, and it has a funny symbol, I put it on the blackboard: µm. µ comes from the Greek alphabet, it is the lowercase letter for ‘m’. Micro means small in Greek. Can you think of other words that start with micro?

Ss list e.g. microscope, microwave, microphone and microchip.

T: Yes, very good. Can you show me how long a micrometre is with your fingers? No, that would be impossible, we need a microscope to see that, right? Now let’s take another step, because there are even smaller things than micrometers. What do we call the thousandth of a micrometer?

S: Nanometer.

T: Excellent! Nano means ‘dwarf’ in Greek, and it must be a really a teeny-weeny dwarf, because it is only one-thousandth of a micrometer, and that was also very small. The symbol for nanometer is nm.

Now that we know how small a nanometer is, let’s get back to nanorobots. In the article we read that nano-robots could be used to heal people, they could be injected into the sick part of the body and there they do what needs to be done. For example I have a problem in my hand, a nanorobot is injected, it is maneuvered around until it heals me. That would be quite fantastic, right? Can you imagine that?

I would like you to try and imagine such a nano-robot. How do you think it could move around in my hand? How would it travel?

TIP It is a good idea to put the symbols on the blackboard: m, cm, mm, µm, nm 1 m = 100 cm = 1000 mm 1 mm = 1000 µm = 1 000000 nm

S: It could be transported in the circulatory system.

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T: Yes, very good, it could easily travel in blood, like an itsy bitsy submarine! Now look at the back of your hand. Can you see those bluish lines? Those are your veins, they carry your blood towards your heart. They are tiny pipes. Can you guess the diameter of a vein on the back of your hand?

S: A millimeter.

T: Yes, that’s about right. Now I am going to give you a very difficult maths question. You can do the counting by looking at the measurements on the blackboard or you can take a guess.

Let’s imagine that I have this pain in my hand and a nano-robot is injected in my vein. It is a really big robot, because it is 100 nm wide. But it can travel comfortably, because the inside of my vein is 1 mm wide.

Unfortunately, it is not enough and I am still in pain, so another nano-robot must be injected to heal me. But even that is not enough, so they send one more… The questions is: how many nano-robots can park next to each other in may vein?

TIP If students cannot answer the question, the T can help them by asking questions, e.g.: There is a special network in our body that reaches all its parts, what is it? There is a very important fluid circulating in our body, what do you think it is? The students do not necessarily have to say the expression ‘circulatory system’, it is enough if they realize that blood travels around in their body.

TIP The T should draw a big circle on the board, indicating the vein and write 1 mm on its diameter. Then a submarine should be drawn next to it, indicating that its width (not its length!) is 100 nm.

Ss make wild guesses, so usually hit the right answer: ten thousand.

T: Yes, very good, ten thousand. Can you imagine ten thousand cars parking next to each other in a line? That would be something. It would take a huge parking place, right? It is much harder to imagine things that are this small.

Okay, let’s get back to robots. You have already listed a lot of things robots are good for, but I wonder what kind of robots you would like for yourself.

You are going to work in pairs. Each pair will get a plastic bag of Lego pieces. As you can see they are rather small, so please pay attention and do not scatter them. Your task is to build a robot using all the pieces you got. There is no exception, you have to use all the pieces. Please, give your robot a name and explain what it is used for.

If you are ready, one of you should put the name of your robot on the board. You have 8 minutes to do this.

Ss build the robots and put the names on the board. The T reads out the names and the Ss show their robot and in one sentence explain what it is for.

Evaluation 8. Robots

TIP It’s important to make students use all the pieces, otherwise some of them might be tempted not to work so hard.

TIP The T should be strict about time limits, students should be not allowed to talk too much when introducing their robot, because it is boring for the others.

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T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this exercise?

Students are invited to share their ideas.

T: Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed the activity.

8. Robots

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9. Roll along Overview This creative activity aims to develop the students’ interest in science and to call their attention to the environmental damages of travelling.

Science / Reading 3rd grade (8y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

Materials Dragonfly 2012/20

Objectives § § § § §

developing the scientific knowledge of students developing vocabulary (vehicles, plants) developing communicational skills developing reading skills developing environmental awareness

Activities

Other Resources Small pieces of velcro in different colours.

The two different pieces of the velcros (one feels fluffy, the other feels rough) should be mixed and put in two small boxes, all the fluffy ones in one and all the rough ones in another. There should be as many pieces as there are students in the class.

T: Today we are going to talk about ways of travelling. I wonder how well you know different vehicles. For example, can you tell me which vehicles have wheels?

S: Of course!

T: Okay, let’s see. We are going to say roll along, roll along and then I add something. If that thing can roll along, because it has wheel, please everybody raise both your arms. But I will try to trick you and sometimes say things that cannot roll along, because they have no wheels. In such cases you have to keep your arms down. Okay? Let’s try this. Roll along, roll along car!

Ss raise their arms.

T: Okay, that was easy to test you. Roll along, roll along boat!

Ss keep their arms down.

T: Well, I can see you all understand. Now let’s play!

T plays the game with various things, e. g. locomotive engine, wheelchair, airplane, trolley-bus, sledge, shopping trolley, sailplane, wheelbarrow, cruiser, steering wheel, roller-skates, scenic railway,

9. Roll along

TIP The T should try to trick the students with difficult words, otherwise the task is boring.

If students start arguing among each other, it is best to let them for a minute and decide

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Ferris wheel.

T: Well done! Now, I have mentioned some vehicles, but I’m sure you know many more. Can you name some?

for themselves, but the T should give affirmative answers before moving on. Note that there can be different versions of the same thing e.g. a scenic railway might have wheels, but in most places it glides on its rails without wheels.

TIP It is a good idea to put the various vehicles on the blackboard for reference.

Ss list various vehicles.

T: Okay, very good. You have listed a lot of excellent ways to travel, but I wonder how you decide which way to choose. What determines that?

Ss name distance, time, availability, capability, money.

T: Excellent. But there is one more thing you have to consider. We agreed that travelling is fun. However, certain ways of travelling can seriously harm the environment. Which do you think are these ways and why are they harmful?

Ss name e.g. air pollution caused by cars.

T: Yes, excellent. If you wanted to be an environmentally conscious person what are the best ways to travel?

S: On foot.

TIP The T can help with questions, e.g. How would you travel to another continent? (distance) How would you travel if you had to be in the neighbouring country tomorrow? (time) How would you travel in the jungle? (availability) How would you travel if you couldn’t ride a bike? (capability) How would you travel for free? (money) TIP The T can help to deepen the conversation with questions, e.g. Have you ever been in a city centre crowded with cars? What was it like? Was it quiet and peaceful? Is it only the air that is polluted by cars? Have you ever heard the term ‘noise pollution’ or ‘light pollution’? What can they mean?

T: Yes, it’s true. And if you want to travel faster and further?

S: By bicycle.

T: Yes, very good. As you know, to move anything we need energy.

Depending on how far and how fast you want to move a thing and how heavy that thing is, you need more or less energy. If you only want to move yourself and walk, you can use the energy of your body. If you want to roll along by bike, it is even better, because the wheels help you move faster. The energy of your body is still enough to move the bike and it is even good for you, you will become healthy and strong. But if you want to move something very big, or you want to travel faster or further, you need some extra energy, some kind of vehicle that works with an engine. So you will use much more energy and to do that you have to use resources.

Depending on what kind of resources you use and how much you need to move around, your travelling can cause only a slight or a significant damage. You have to consider how important your 9. Roll along

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travelling is, and whether you can find better ways of doing it, for example to walk or ride a bike.

Okay, let’s have another game. I would like all of you to stand in a double line in front of me. I have two boxes. Please, come in pairs and I would like the person standing on the right to take a piece from the right box, and the person on the left a piece from the left box.

Take just one piece and then return to your places.

Thank you. Can anybody tell me what you have in your hand?

S: Velcro.

T: Yes, very good. What is it for?

S: To fasten things, e.g. shoes or coats.

T: Exactly. Now all of you who has a piece of velcro with a fluffy touch raise your hand! Okay, and now those of you who has a piece with a rough touch, raise your hand! All right. Can somebody explain why there are two different pieces in a velcro?

S: Because the rough piece sticks into the fluffy piece.

T: Excellent. Now those of you with the rough pieces take a good look! Look at your piece really close. What can you see?

TIP The T can explain that the word velcro comes from the French words velours (‘velvet’), and crochet (‘hook’).

S: Tiny hooks.

T: Well done. There are lots and lots of tiny hooks on the rough pieces and they cling into the fuzzes of the fluffy surface. Now you might wonder what it all has to do with travelling, but I will tell you in a minute.

The hook-and-loop fastener was conceived in 1941 by a Swiss engineer, George de Mestral. He went on a hunting trip with his dog and when he arrived home he was annoyed to see that the fur of his dog and the legs of his trousers were full of burdocks, a kind of plant that sticks easily. He took a close look at the burrs of the burdock under a microscope and found the tiny hooks. This gave him the idea to invent velcros. Now the question is why would a plant want to stick to a dog or a man’s leg. We’ll answer that soon.

Plants can travel in other ways, as well. Look at this picture! You will find this plant, the field eryngo in Dragonfly. When the wind blows, this plant rolls along. I wonder which of you can find the picture in Dragonfly.

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S: It is in the article Travelling Plants.

T: Well done! We haven’t read it yet, but I’m sure you can take a guess why a plant would want to travel.

S: To sow its seeds.

T: Yes, very good. Now let’s read the article together. Fanny, please start reading it aloud.

Each student reads a sentence.

T: Well done! I would like all of you to do the task that was described at the end of the article and write a report. Johnny, can you explain once again what you should do?

Johnny: That when our shoes get muddy we should put some of the mud in a pot with some soil and water it and wait until some plants grow out.

T: Yes, thank you, Johnny. I would like you to make photographs of the plants or draw them. However, if your shoes aren’t muddy, please, don’t dirty them, just collect a handful of soil from anywhere and see what happens.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this lesson?

Students are invited to share their ideas.

Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed this lesson.

9. Roll along

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10. Two makes one Overview This activity aims to develop the students’ interest in science and their understanding of social relations.

Science / Maths / Reading 3rd grade (8y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

Materials Dragonfly 2013/24

Objectives § § § § §

developing the scientific knowledge of students developing mathematical skills developing communicational skills developing reading skills discussion of social relations, gender prejudice

Activities T: I need four volunteers. Thank you. All the others please stand in a circle. The four volunteers will be the judges, they should stand outside of the circle, at equal distances. The judges’ task will be to watch that the rules are not broken.

Those standing in the circle will have a very easy task. At each round I will say a number. I want to see exactly that many people take a step forward. You have to decide if you step forward or remain in your place. You can make corrections. Each round will be as long as it takes the given number of people to step forward. But you cannot consult the others in any way, neither verbally, nor with eye contact, nor by body language. Also, you cannot comment on the decisions of the others in any way. These are very strict rules and the judges will make sure you keep them in mind. Judges, if you see anybody break the rules in any way, put your hand on their shoulders for a second to warn them. The judges should also keep the rules. Let’s try it!

Three….

Ss do the activity in 5-6 rounds.

T: Thank you, you can return to your places. Can you tell me how you made your decisions?

10. Two makes one

Other Resources The classroom should be arranged to make enough space for the activity.

TIP If there are more than 25 students in the class, two circles should be formed and they can perform the activity after one another.

They should watch each other and comment on the solutions.

If there are less than 20 students in the class, there is no need for judges and the T should do their job.

TIP The T should start with a small number, 3 or 4, then make it much bigger, 13 or 14, then give the total number of the participants, so that everybody should take a step forward, then the T should say 1. It is interesting to see who will step forward to be the one.

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Ss explain various ways of thinking.

T: Hank, I wonder why you decided to step forward when I said 1.

Hank explains.

T: What do you think we can learn from this exercise?

General discussion.

T: Now I would like you to look at this picture in Dragonfly without reading the article. What do you think it is?

TIP Depending on how much time the T has for this conversation it can be deeper or faster.

However, certain important issues should be verbalized, e. g. personal responsibility; understanding the need of the community; self-sacrifice; refraining from action can be both positive and negative; circumstances often determine our decisions, so it is important to be aware of them.

Ss make guesses.

T: It is lichen. Do you know what lichen is?

S: It is a kind of plant.

T: Well, you are almost right. The truth is, it is not one living being, but two, because lichen consists of algae and fungi. They live together, because it is mutually beneficial for them. Look at the title of the article: Good for you, good for me. What do you think it means? Can you give me examples of things that are good for you and good for me?

Ss give examples.

T: Very good. Now I would like you to think about algae and fungi living together. Can you give me other examples of two creatures living together for mutual benefits? They can be humans, animals, whatever comes to your mind.

Ss give examples and explain the benefits.

TIP Ss generally mention men and women living together. They usually describe the male and female tasks with a certain amount of gender prejudice. The T can ask questions to reveal their prejudice, e.g. Do you know that there are many excellent chefs who are men?

T: Thank you. If you look at the cover picture of Dragonfly, you will also see a good example: the oxpecker and the buffalo. Can you explain why?

Ss explain that the oxpecker feeds on the parasites of the mufflon.

T: Very good. Now I would like you to read the article aloud. Susan, please start with the first sentence.

Each student reads a sentence.

T: Okay, I will put a few difficult words on the board from the text and I would like you to try and explain them in your own words. You can read the text again if it helps.

10. Two makes one

TIP Definitions should be as simple and short as

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evolution, symbiosis, photosynthesis, mitochondrion Ss make up definitions, discuss which is the best and put it down in their exercise book.

possible, but scientifically correct. The aim is to let the students paraphrase the definitions by using their own words.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this exercise?

Students are invited to share their ideas.

Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed the lesson.

10. Two makes one

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11. The Web of Life Overview This activity aims to show students the interconnectedness of the world.

Science / Reading 5th grade (10y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

Materials Dragonfly 2013/23

Objectives § § § §

developing the scientific knowledge of students developing the environmental awareness of students developing communicational skills developing reading skills

Other Resources Picture of a gorilla A ball of string (30-40 meters) Clothespins 20x20 cm cards (See Appendix)

Activities

The classroom should be arranged to make enough room for the activity.

T: I’d like to show you a picture. Please take a long look and tell me what you feel.

Ss express their ideas and emotions.

T: Thank you. I’d like you to find the article in Dragonfly that is next to this picture. Look at the title and tell me what you think the article is about: The smartphone, coltane and gorillas. Coltane is a kind of metallic ore.

Ss make wild guesses.

T: Well, I can understand you are a bit bewildered by the title. It is really difficult to see what all these things have to do with one another. Let’s play a game! Each of you should take a card and a clothespin. Pin the card on the front of your clothes so that the others can read it well. Stand in a circle.

Peter, you took the card ‘MOUNTAIN GORILLA’, so you will start.

Please hold the end of this string. Look around and choose somebody whose card can be connected to a mountain gorilla in any way and explain how you are connected.

11. The Web of Life

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Peter: ‘Forest’. The gorilla lives in the forest.

T: Okay, so we will connect you to ‘Forest’ with this string. Forest, please hold on to this string and choose somebody you can connect to. You should all hold on to the string during the activity, don’t drop it. Try to include everybody in the game, but one person can have several connections.

The game goes on until all the string is used up.

T: Okay, so we have woven a beautiful web. We have made lots of connections. Let’s see what happens if I move one item of this web just a little bit. We started with ‘MOUNTAIN GORILLA’, so I will move him. Everybody, please hold on to your strings.

TIP The ball of string can be thrown, but as it often causes more trouble than fun, it is easier if the T helps the students pass it on.

That means the T must stand in the middle of the web, so it is advisable to ask the students to hold the strings as high as possible, so that the T can move around under it. The string should be tight all the time.

TIP For the best effect choose to move the person who has the most connections.

The T gently pulls the student two steps backwards from the circle.

The others must move with him to keep the strings in their hands.

T: Can you explain what happened?

S: We had to move with him, because we were connected.

T: Exactly. We will read the article in Dragonfly and you will learn from it that only a decade ago there were 10 000 gorillas around the Congo River and now there are only 500. So can you tell me what happens if I remove the gorillas from this web of life? Who will be affected by it?

S: Everybody.

T: It seems strange, because we live so far away from the Congo, and because very often we don’t even know about these things, we are not aware of our losses. But this game of ours shows us that everything is connected to everything else on our planet. You are connected to mountain gorillas.

I’d like you to look at the picture again. Are there any new ideas that come to your mind now?

Ss express ideas.

TIP

T: Thank you. Now I’d like you to read the article aloud. Joe, please start with the first sentence.

While the students read the article, the T puts key words of the text on the board: connection, smart phones, coltane, tantalum, mining, poverty, child workers, environmental damages, pollution, roadsystem, poachers, electronic industry, tin, lethal dangers, progress

Each student reads a sentence.

T: There is a very important question towards the end of this article.

Can somebody read it out again?

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S: ‘One has to ask the question: should we give up computers and smartphones? Should we give up progress?’

T: Yes, thank you. This article describes environmental damages caused by irresponsible human behavior. It describes how these problems affect the lives of thousands of people, how children of your age suffer so that we can have electric gadgets to play with. I think it’s just not fair. What do you think about it? What could be a solution to this problem? Look at the keywords I put on the board to help you think about it.

Ss express their emotions and ideas.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this lesson?

Students are invited to share their ideas.

Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed the activity.

11. The Web of Life

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12. What’s the News?

Overview This creative activity aims to call the students’ attention to the manipulative methods of the media.

Reading / Writing / Media 5th grade (10y) up

Participants 20–25 students, teacher

Materials Dragonfly 2014/25

Objectives § § § §

developing reading skills developing creative writing skills developing communicational skills developing a sense of personal responsibility

Other Resources Pictures Titles of newspaper articles printed on slips of paper. See Appendix.

Activities T: I’d like to show you two pictures. What do you think happens in them?

S: The woman and the man read something and are surprised or frightened.

T: Okay, and what do you think they have read? Let’s make up some really surprising or frightening news! I’ll put them on the blackboard.

Ss make up news.

T: Well, I am really frightened now, so just stop, please. As you can see, today we are going to talk about the news. I will hand out titles of newspaper articles on these slips of paper. Everybody gets one, and all are different. Please form groups of six and sit around a desk.

Your task will be to discuss the news you have in your group and to put your slips of paper in order of importance. Put the most important piece of news at the top and the least important at the bottom.

Everybody should accept the order in your group, so you will have to persuade all your mates. You have six minutes.

Ss work in groups.

12. What’s the News?

TIP Students tend to be confused about the point of ‘importance’. The T should point out that it is the students’ opinion she is interested in, so the order of importance is to be

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T: Well done! I will ask each group to read out the most important and the least important news.

viewed from their personal point of view.

What is important for you?

Ss read out the news.

T: Janine, can you explain why you think this piece of news is the least important for your group: ‘New $10 million yacht capsizes as it’s being delivered to owner’?

Janine: Because it’s not our yacht, and we don’t really feel sorry for the owner.

T: Why not?

Janine: I guess if he can buy a yacht for $10 million, he’ll manage somehow.

T: Okay, I understand. Frank, how about this one: ‘Fake gold bars turn up in Manhattan’.

Frank: We live very far from Manhattan and have no business in gold, so we weren’t interested.

T: I see. Mary, can you explain why you put this piece of news at the top: ‘EU Economy Growing Slower Than Expected’?

Mary: Because it affects our everyday life, for example our parents’ jobs can depend on this.

T: All right. I wonder if you can tell me what we call the kind of news most of you put at the bottom.

S: Gutter news.

T: Yes, you can say that. These are news from the gutter press. Why do you think they were given this not so flattering name?

S: Because these news are not really important, and sometimes they are not even true.

T: I see. Let’s look at your paper slips once more and those who think has a piece of gutter news raise your hand. Read them out one by one and please explain why you think these are not really important.

Ss give explanations.

T: Okay, the next task is really simple. Please, everybody take your paper slip. Those of you who think your piece of news is about

12. What’s the News?

TIP The T must be well prepared to be able to explain the difference between news. E.g.

‘Four Police Killed in Attack on BurmaBangladesh Border’ seems to be a crime story at first glance, but it has its political implications. Depending on how much time there is for the activity, the T can analyze some of the news.

2

something good, a positive thing, put it on this table to the right. This who think it is about something bad, a negative thing, put it on the table to the left. If you cannot decide, put it on the table in the middle.

Ss place their slips.

T: Look at the tables. What does it tell you? And I must add that I did not select the news to have this result.

TIP Some of the news might be controversial, e.g. ‘France Calls for Release of Mali Hostages’ is positive in a sense, because it is about the release of hostages, but it is also negative because it discusses a hostage situation. The T should accept the students’ explanations if they are relevant in any sense.

S: That there are more bad things happening than good things.

T: Are you sure? Do you think this is really what is happening in the world?

S: No, but this is what we can read about in the news.

T: And why do you think we must read more bad news than good news?

S: Because that is what people are more interested in.

T: I’m afraid you are right. I wonder why. Have you ever thought about that? Perhaps we enjoy looking the same way as the lady and the man in our pictures: frightened and shocked.

Look at the board. Here are the pieces of news you made up at the beginning of the lesson. Now I would like you to choose one and transform it, so that the lady and the man in the pictures would not be frightened, but smiling happily.

Ss transform the news.

Evaluation T: Can you list three things you have learnt during this lesson?

Students are invited to share their ideas.

TIP

T: Very good, thank you. I think you were all very clever and I hope you enjoyed the activity.

See a task connected to this activity in the Appendix.

12. What’s the News?

3

Appendix LET’S COLOR NOTHING! Lídia Nádori: Small change and roses The old lady next door has lived alone for years. In the morning she always opens her front door when I leave with my son for the kindergarten. She comes out, fixes the doormat, waters her plants and shakes her dust cloth. Sometimes I feel she has been waiting for us to step out of our flat. We start talking, of course. Not that we have so much to say, we only mention what we both know, that we are on our way to the kindergarten and she is going to water her plants. Or that it’s raining or the sun is shining… I enjoy talking to her more and more because I feel how much these few seconds matter to her.

ROBOTS Beáta Kricsfalussy: Robot world The shape of robots is mainly determined by their tasks. The automatic or semi-automatic machines are often shaped to look like humans, but there are nano-robots that are microscopic in size. Parts of a nano-machine are the size of nanometers which is the one-billionth of a meter.

Researchers hope that they can build robots the size of a virus or bacteria. If these teeny weeny robots are inserted in the human body, they can heal or operate on people at exactly the right places. Just as if we had swallowed the physician.

COMMON GROUNDS János Lackfi: Common Affairs When I was little I pushed the small ones from the jungle gym at the playground 'cause it was MY castle, but I was scolded terribly as the jungle gym is OURS which means it is not MINE. Johnny was scolded in the kindergarten, because he wouldn’t let me go a round on the motorbike even though it’s not his, but OURS which means it’s MINE, too. When I had finished my sandwich and had a bite of Johnny’s because he was just picking at it I was told off and I couldn’t understand why since the sandwiches were OURS so that means it’s MINE, too.

When my little brother was born I was not allowed to suckle Mummy, even though she is OUR Mummy, but all MY toys became

immediately OURS when that little pig coveted them. Not to mention that when I pushed him in OUR room from MY very own bed I was carpeted, and when in OUR room I climbed into his playpen I was carpeted again, and I wonder if he can do it why can’t I. MY birthday cake had to be shared with all the guests when I wanted to eat it although I've never heard of a shared birthday, that must be really rare because you cannot time your birth like they time the bomb in films. At the school excursion the form master forced us all to put the snacks together and instead of the meat sandwich MY Mummy made me I got one with cottage cheese and I can’t stand the smell of. But of course it was ME who had to put up OUR tent because I was a scout and I know how to do it and I had to lay OUR fire because I can do it even when the wood is wet.

And when WE had to sing together I couldn’t get away with it even though I hate to be the one who starts a song. Unfortunately now I have to write a composition on ‘What the community means to me’, but if I write what I really think and the others really think it will be one COMMON thought but I will get an F so I will write that it is better to give then to get and that it is good to be part of a community and that I have always enjoyed the conscious building of OUR community because I know I will get an A if I write it ‘cause it is a difficult word to spell. And to tell the truth what I came to learn as a ‘life experience’ is that the COMMON horse is worst shod, so I say hold your horses, and although every horse thinks its own pack the heaviest, I usually get the worst burden

Farmer Farmer with two with one Cows in cows cow total

At the beginning 0 10 10 1. rule breaking 1 9 11 2.

2 8 12 3.

3 7 13 4.

4 6 14 5.

5 5 15 6.

6 4 16 7.

7 3 17 8.

8 2 18 9.

9 1 19 10.

10 0 20

liter / liter / liter / 1 cow two cows cow -­‐

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

-­‐ 0

Total liters

Questions • How long is it worth for a farmer to have two cows grazing on the common pasture?

• What happens if a farmer realizes that this practice is dangerous and goes back to have one cow in the pasture?

COLORBALL Márta Kiss-Péterffy: Color circle Spring has tastes of green for me Summer has a yellow sound The smell of hills at fall is reddish Waiting for winter’s white step For you it’s red – for me it’s round, fragrant and sweet For you it’s yellow – for me it’s sticky, delicious and luscious For you it’s blue – for me it gurgles, has a taste of cold silk For you it’s green – for me it rustles, sings, buzzes or quiets For you it’s brown – for me it’s dusty, lumpy and it’s sinking For you it’s white – for me it’s ice cold, settles on my nose-tip Black is the same – for you and for me!

It connects and surrounds us – we can almost see each other.

EDIBLE PLANTS

PLANT chamomile pansy cattail rose violet yucca carnation nettles marigold dandelion seaweed beech acorn gooseberry daisy cactus

EDIBLE

NOT EDIBLE

HOW TO TAME YOUR DRAGON HERO(INE)S

EVIL CHARACTERS

HELPERS

INSTRUMENTS

PLACES

WHAT’S THE NEWS? Krisztina Nagy: What is important for you?

The curiosity for a piece of news is formed by how unique, funny, entertaining it is. People like reading about the lives of actors, singers and other celebrities. They are interested in earthquakes, natural catastrophes and crimes. The piece of news fill the tabloids, the so-called gutter press.

There are several TV news programs in which coverage is mainly about such news and you can buy a load of tabloids and newspapers that only contain gutter news. Tabloids do not really help us to find our way in the world, they only aim to entertain people.

Titles of newspaper articles: US Coastguard resumes search for sailors Twitter’s silent problem: Researchers find 44% of 974 million accounts have never tweeted Revealed: Britain’s 30 richest people in the world of fashion Man jumps from bridge, accidentally hits boat on way down Air fares and fuel send inflation flying Read all about it: bad news for bookshops Fake gold bars turn up in Manhattan Most expensive divorce costs oligarch £2.6 billion Thai stocks underperform as martial law declared Elections don't mean more stability in Libya At least six killed in train crash near Moscow Florida high school coach allegedly stole from players’ wallets Heightened Antarctic ice loss may prompt volcanic activity Woman attacked by bear near Alaska military base heroically walked 2 miles for help London Cleric Found Guilty on Terror Charges by US Jury France Calls for Release of Mali Hostages Officials explain why dog can’t live after attacking boy

Four Police Killed in Attack on Burma-Bangladesh Border New $10 million yacht capsizes as it’s being delivered to owner Mali Troops to Retake Rebel Stronghold EU Economy Growing Slower Than Expected Seven Ukrainian Soldiers Killed in Ambush Distracted Driver Dies After Posting On Facebook About The Song ‘Happy,’ Taking Selfies Two planes almost collided over Newark Liberty Airport, federal report finds

NETWORK Cards TOUCH SCREEN MINER CAMERA WASTE POACHER MOUNTAIN GORILLA TIN POLLUTION METAL SOIL VIDEOCLIP ROAD-SYSTEM FOREST LUMBER WILDLIFE SCHOOLCHILDREN ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGES WATER SMARTPHONE ISLAND POVERTY MINERAL HEALTH PLAYSTATION

TASKS Colorball It’s springtime. You have been notified that due to changes in the national educational law, students with various physical disabilities are to be integrated in schools. The schools have 5 months to prepare for this. Specialized teachers will help the new students, but you have to consider all the others.

The new students who will come to your school will be both boys and girls. Some of them will be blind, some will be deaf and / or mute, some will be in wheelchairs. They are all good students and have no mental difficulties.

Form 4–5 groups of 4-6 students. If possible, groups should have the same number of students.

Tell the students they have been chosen by all the kids in the school to act on their behalf as advisors. Their opinion will be very significant in how the school prepares for this huge change.

They will have to form committees and discuss all the possible problems and the things to do.

The committees must make suggestions on how to prepare the students for the change and how to make the building totally accessible.

The students get a list of questions (they do not have to answer each or any of them, but the list might help them in their work). Each member of all the committees must take notes of their discussion.

After 15 minutes number the students in each group from 1 to 4 or 6, depending how many students there are. Students who got the same number should form a group. That way they will work together with students who were all in different committees. They have 20 minutes to compare notes and discuss the suggestions of their committees.

List of questions: - Do you think it is good that students with physical disabilities are to be integrated in regular schools?

- How would you prepare yourself and your fellow students for this change?

- What kind of changes should be done in the building? Think about the various disabilities and that the new students will be both boys and girls.

- How could you help the new students in your everyday life?

- What kind of reception party would you plan to welcome them?

- How would you organize a school trip in the future?

- What would / could you do if some of the students were rude to the newcomers?

What’s the news?

This task is ideal for an extra school day or a project week. If students enjoy the activity, you can create a permanent bulletin board or a website and work on it during the school year.

The whole class will turn into a news editorial staff. The title of our newspaper is HAPPY-GOLUCKY and we are only going to print positive news.

There are various tasks and all of you should choose what you are interested in: • Browse newspapers and websites and find positive news (cultural feats, sports events, important inventions, etc.). Sum up these news in a few sentences.

• Browse newspapers and websites and transform neutral or negative news into positive stories. E.g. ‘Florida high school coach allegedly stole from players’ wallets’ • ‘Florida high school students can keep their stuff safe’.

• Make interviews with students, teachers, parents and other visitors of your school about good things that happened to them. Sum them up in a few paragraphs.

• Make interviews with students who have achieved something outstanding. It can be winning a competition or a sport event, doing voluntary work after school or writing an A + maths test (after several Es and Fs).

• Make photos or videos with your phone about good things in your school.

• Find photos and other illustrations that convey a positive meaning.

Collect all the above material and arrange them on a bulletin board or a website.

Discuss the effects of the work: Did it feel good to do this task?

What have you learnt about your schoolmates and teachers?

What new ideas came to your mind?

How could you make our newspaper even happier?

Do you think this task changed the way you read / listen to / watch the news?