TEA LEAF project is a European Project into the Erasmus Program. Key Action 2:
cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practice; Strategic partnerships in
the field of education, training and youth. The project team is composed of: Direction
de l'Enseignement catholique de la Mayenne (UDOGEC FR), St Patrick's College (a college
of Dublin City University IRL), Zapadoceska Univerzita V Plzni (West bohemia University
Pilsen CZ), Univerza V Ljubljana (Faculty of Education SL), Universidad de Almeria (SP).
This project is coordinated by Direction de l'Enseignement Catholique de la Mayenne
(UDOGEC FR).
Children, and thus parents/teachers, explore their worlds all the time with ICT tools.
Misconceptions about biodiversity/ecology are deeply engrained and if we wish to
transform learning at school at a deep level: learners need to encounter stimuli in such
a way as to bring about real change and the learning must be transformative.
This project explores the use of serious games (called “apps”) by experiments conducted
by teachers and their pupils (from upper primary school to lower secondary school), who
will be in permanent contact with a team of researchers and academic advisors, and
supported by an in-service training programme developed for this purpose. Everyone
worked together (teachers, researchers, trainers) in order to identify good practices, and
then to disseminate them within the participating organizations. The analysis of this
iterative process was at the heart of the action research project. This includes also the
analysis and improvement of the apps used and tested in this process. The
experimenter-teachers (75 teachers from 5 countries) linked together across the project
(European dimension) in order to become resource persons within their schools
network.
To improve learning about biodiversity using serious games, there are three approaches
that can be taken: (1) the use of ready-made apps, currently available, (2) the production
and evaluation of designer-made apps, and (3) the production and evaluation of child-
made apps. These represent two directions: (a) top-down (teacher-led, transmissive and
emphasising constructivist learning) and (b) bottom-up (child-led, and constructivist). In
the course of the project we moved from (1) to (3), and thus from (a) to (b) in an iterative
process with feedback.
Due to all these elements, here is this Teachers Resource Book which structure is as
follows. The first chapter is based on existing apps (4) and the second one on new apps
(10) developed by teachers and students collaborating on the project. For every single
4
Teaching Ecology through Apps: Learning Engagement And Fun
app basic and general useful information is provided at the beginning and then a short
description and its general and specific aims. At the end of every app a teaching unit is
described, providing information about the activities developed and the chronology, the
main concepts, the learning outcomes and, finally, some suggestions and
recommendations for potential users of the apps. To finish we provided an appendix
with a huge compilation of existing apps.