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Mónica Tosi's Interview on Science Across the World with Janaina Cardoso, President of APLIERJ for Mindbite, a quarterly publication of APLIERJ, Associacao de Professores de Ingles do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Mónica Tosi is an ELT practitioner from Argentina. She teaches teenagers and adults at the T.S. Eliot Bilingual Studies Centre, Banfield, Argentina, where she trains students for international examinations. She also teaches in-company courses in Buenos Aires, for IdiomaNet. She has been in charge of teacher development sessions in Argentina and abroad, most recently at The Fifth Southern Cone TESOL Convention in Montevideo, Uruguay, and The Braz-Tesol Third Seminar on Intercultural Studies in Curitiba, Brazil.
On February 8th-10th 2004, sponsored by the British Council’s English Language Teaching Contacts Scheme (ELTeCS), I attended the Braz-Tesol Third Seminar on Intercultural Studies and I also introduced Science Across the World to the participants. The seminar offered a programme of sessions looking at the development of internet-based materials for intercultural education in state schools.
What is Science Across the World?
It is an internet-based exchange programme between schools all over the world with standardised student materials. It includes sixteen resource topics, introduction to the issue, support data, and a pack which contains teachers´ notes, students´ pages and an exchange form. All the packs come in at least six languages.
Through SAW, we encourage our students to carry out small-scale ethnographic research between different cultures. Students collect data, facts and opinions locally and exchange globally from our schools database.Which are the topics?
What are the topics?
Well, we find specific topic such as Acid Rain, Renewable Energy, Global Warming, Chemistry in our Lives and Biodiversity, among others, but it also contains general, everyday topics such as Domestic Waste, Road Safety, Keeping Healthy or Eating and Drinking. These topics take from three to six hours to complete, possibly including a homework assignment. They complement the school curricula but they can also be used as extra curricular activities. The topics were written by educators and experts in the issues from a wide range of countries.
Is it a project only for science teachers? What is the target audience?
Not at all. English language teachers should be encouraged to join this programme. Specially because I feel that English language teachers who are not science teachers – like myself - are sometimes afraid of dealing with science topics. So, this is a great opportunity to explore, learn, and teach content through language and vice versa.
What are the advantages of participating in a project like that?
There are many advantages. Science Across the World helps young people join the ever expanding and dynamic global learning community by providing a platform for communication and shared learning between societies of different attitudes and values on important social, scientific and environmental science issues.
Students will benefit by being involved in the wider aspects of science, making links with other countries, using foreign languages and ICT – information and communication technology - and by extending science into cross curricular activities, including citizenship and sustainable development education.
Which is your favourite topic?
Well, I think my favourite topic is “ Talking About Genetics Around the World”. The issue of genetically modified animals and plants is very interesting, and it triggers off ethical discussions. It seems to me that dealing with this topic naturally makes our students engage in debates. Thus, we can use this as a tool for teaching them the language for arguing and thinking, for instance.
How can we participate?
The first step is to register as a SAW member. Just go to www.scienceacross.org and follow the instructions, it is very easy. Secondly, choose a topic. Next, students study the information and carry out the activities. Later, they collect the data on the exchange form.
While the students work on the project, or even before, you, the teacher, must select a school globally from the database, so that they can send their exchange form - via email, fax or post – to their partner school and receive one from it. Finally, they discuss the global findings.
I believe this is a wonderful programme and that students – as well as teachers – can profit from it. By working on this project, students develop not only writing, speaking, listening and writing skills, but also cross-curricular skills, such as research, identification, prioritizing, measuring, interpretation, linguistic, ICT, surveying and presentation skills.
Mónica Tosi, Argentina
English Language Teacher
monicatosi@data54.com
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