1. | 1| 1 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Sonia Hetzner Sonia.hetzner@fim.uni-erlangen.de

2. | 2| 2 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Innovation in Learning Institute University of Erlangen-Nürnberg E-Learning competence centre: Innovation at the University Applied research: Pedagogy and Technology for supporting First, Lifelong and lifwide Learning

3. | 3| 3 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 KEY TO NATURE IS ABOUT IDENTIFICATION OF ORGANISMS IN FORMAL AND INFORMAL LEARNING SETTINGS

4. | 4| 4 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 KeyToNature EU – Project, funded in the scope of the eContentPlus Program (2007-2010) 11 Partners Universities (Italy, Germany, Belgium) Science Museums: Natural History Museum UK and the Natural History Museum Slovenia Botanical Garden: Madrid Technology Companies (IT, AT)

5. | 5| 5 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 WHY? Pedagogical

6. | 6| 6 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Pedagogical: Identification of Organisms (I) Formal: Part of the curriculum Informal: Curiosity about plants & animals

7. | 7| 7 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Supports providing learning environments that …open …explorative …collaborative …visual learning & thinking & communication Pedagogical: Identification of Organisms (II)

8. | 8| 8 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 ….Integrated skills can be explored… Defining: following directions, or observing and developing statements concrete descriptions of an organism, Formulating: constructing images, drawings or models to explain ideas, Interpreting: arriving at explanations, inferences, or data hypotheses from data that has been graphed or placed in a table, Hypothesizing: stating a tentative generalization of observations Pedagogical: Identification of Organisms (III)

9. | 9| 9 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Supports the development of basic science skills… … Observing & Defining …Hypothesizing …Collecting & Formulating & Classifying information …Interpreting & Inferring …Predicting Pedagogical: Identification of Organisms (III)

10. | 10 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Identification for different target groups  Primary – They like to  a vehicle for general pedagogical aims problem-solving, team work abilities, improvement of social skills  High curiosity of the children,  Activate emotion  Small set of species to identify, no technical terms  Seconday – They have to  a vehicle for general pedagogical aims  But also subject related teaching  Difficulties in motivating – contribution to the KeyToNature Keys can be a vehicle  Terciary and research communities  Improving Identification techniques  Create knowledge on species and taxonomy  Detailed information  Contribution to the community http://www.keytonature.eu/handbook/

11. | 11 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 WHY? Tools for Identification

12. | 12 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 How to identify an organism?

13. | 13 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Genus Family Order Species Ovary inferior Ovary superior Stamens hairy Carpels 5, fusedCarpels 4, free Stamens glabrous Fruit dehiscent Fruit non dehiscent The traditional approach, developed prior to the computer era, is mainly based on classification. It first requires the identification of Order, Family, and Genus. The characters distinguishing Orders, Families and Genera are usually difficult, hence these identification tools are also difficult. The traditional approach…

14. | 14 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 The KeyToNature approach Genus Family Order Species Characters: Flower red, leaves divided In the modern approach, the characters for distinguishing the organisms are organised into a database, and the identification tools can select those characters which render the identification easier

15. | 15 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Adequate e-tools for supporting the identification of organisms!

16. | 16 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Several “classical” keys include organisms occurring in widely different areas or ecological conditions The “difficulty” of identification tools tends to increase with the number of organisms which they include The KeyToNature approach ??

17. | 17 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 The new approach permits to automatically produce identification tools restricted to small subsets of organisms or for a certain area e.g. “the plants of our schoolgarden” The KeyToNature approach !!

18. | 18 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 e-tools Tailored to the needs of a certain activity -Organism group / subgroup -Region -Complex / less komplex Work on every media The KeyToNature approach

19. | 19 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Example1 Treasure hunt in the Botanical garden

20. | 20 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012  Italy – ”treasure hunting” in botanical gardens: A map of the Botanical Garden with ten colour dots refers to woody plants to be identified. In the Garden each plant is recognizable by a numbered billboard of the same colour as the dot on the map.

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22. | 22 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 ExampleExample 2: Identification keys in a primary school project in Italy

23. | 23 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 ExampleExample 3 Braoadleaved trees of the UK, Key developed for the Natural History Museum in London

24. | 24 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Example 4 At the botanical garden in Madrid

25. | 25 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Some examples  Spain – At the Botanical garten in Madrid

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27. | 27 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 WHY? Pedagogical: Specific pedagogical needs

28. | 28 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Customised keys

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31. | 31 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Customised keys Teachers can change what they like…  textual information,  pictures,  Set of species, etc. Translate Add information from the field via  Location based services  Pictures and comments

32. | 32 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 Feedback from the users In general very positive results… Why?  Flexible – KeyToNature continuously growing data basedata base  Customised, e.g. school garden, shrubs of the hedge of …  Re-written keys: teachers become co-authors, adapted to the needs of the children  Multimedia support, especially the pictures  Additional information  Better scores if embedded in class room activities  New, different from what was being used before… Often nothing else similar

33. | 33 eContentplus Stencil Final Conference, Kassel 1. December 2012 …Further perspectives Germany: Offener Naturführer http://offene- naturfuehrer.de/web/ http://offene- naturfuehrer.de/web/ KeyToNature for Italy and Slovenia www.siit.eu www.siit.eu weSpot: weSPOT is a project supported by the European Commission launched October 2012. aims at propagating scientific inquiry – Pedagogical models and Tools as the approach for science learning and teaching

34. Thank you