Guidelines

Collaborative Projects
Guidelines

Who is in charge?
Participants
Responsibilities of the Teachers
Responsibilities of the Local SEED Coordinator
Responsibilities of the SEED Collaborative Projects Manager
Responsibilities of the Principal
Guidelines for selecting the students
Procedure for the Collaboration
Project Titles
Guidelines for the Project
Documentation

Who is in charge?

• Teacher(s) at the school, preferably one teacher at each school that can coordinate the whole process
• Local SEED Coordinator in the area
• SEED Collaborative Projects Manager
• Principal of the School

Participants

• Students and teachers belonging to middle/high school

Responsibilities of the Teachers

1. Select a group of students that will participate in the SEED Collaborative projects (see guidelines for selecting the students)
2. Communicate with the partner schoolteacher and draw up a plan of action depending on school schedules. A crisp timetable should be drawn for the project schedules.
3. Familiarize about the SEED Collaborative projects.
4. Introduce SEED and Collaborative Projects Initiative to the group of students.
5. Brief the students about the projects, schedule (as drawn with the partner schoolteacher) and the deliverables.
6. Allocate time during the school week /weekends when the students can meet and work on the projects together.
7. Identify resources and project supplies needed and notify the Schlumberger local SEED Coordinator so that they can arrange for them or pay the school to buy the supplies needed.
8. Monitor the progress of the projects and the students and make sure that they have enough support for the work.

Responsibilities of the Local SEED Coordinator

1. Identify the teacher that will be working on the SEED Collaborative projects as the main contact.
2. Familiarize yourself with the SEED Collaborative projects.
3. Work with the teacher on setting up the project timetable.
4. Participate in students-teacher meetings as time permits.
5. Make sure that the resources needed for the school to participate in the collaborative projects are identified and made available.
6. Report periodically on the status of the Collaboration and any suggestions for improving the program.
7. Videoconferencing (OPTIONAL): The opening session of Collaboration should be conducted as a memorable videoconferencing between the students at the two schools. This will mark the kick off of the project. Following the videoconference, a small party should be organized to excite the children about the upcoming collaboration. Similarly, the closing session of the collaborative projects should also be a videoconference session between the students and a party to follow to mark the end of the event. Alternately, in those places where videoconferencing is a problem, we can substitute it with a session on Netmeeting/other sources.

Responsibilities of the SEED Collaborative Projects Manager

1. Introduce the Collaborative projects to the teachers in the participating schools
2. Identify the pairs of schools that will be working together
3. Make the connections between the teachers in the participating schools
4. Participate as needed, in the making of the project timetable for the projects
5. Work with the local SEED coordinator, SEED office and SEED ambassador to make sure all resources and supplies needed for the projects are made available at the appropriate time
6. Track the progress of the projects.
7. Make improvements to the program based on the feedback from the schools and the SEED coordinators.

Responsibilities of the Principal

1. Allocate resources needed to ensure a smooth progress in the collaboration efforts.
2. Identify the teacher that will be the key point of contact for the school and represent the school to the teacher in the paired school.
3. Most important – Allocate time for the teacher to work with the students on the projects.
4. Monitor the progress of the project from time to time

Guidelines for selecting the students

• Students should belong to middle/high school
• The projects should be done as a team of students with a team not being greater than 4.
• Students should be interested in participating in the program.

Procedure for the Collaboration

1. Identify the pair of schools that will be collaborating with each other
2. Identify the teachers that will be working with each other at each school.
3. Learn and understand the projects that the students will be working on.
4. Set up a timetable for the 5 projects that the students will be working on.
5. Set up a suitable time for videoconference kick off session.
6. Step through the projects per the timetable with interactions between students via netmeeting, e-mail and chat.
7. Monitor and document the process to include project slides/notes, sketches, photographs, visual aids, etc.
8. Set up a closing videoconference session.
9. Teachers at the 2 schools interact with the SEED local coordinator and the SEED Collaborative projects manager to discuss the outcome and usefulness of the project.

Project Titles

We will start with these following 5 projects and then expand into other projects.

• My Country and My School
• Food and Nutrition
• Local Sports
• Testing Water Quality
• Testing Air Quality

Guidelines for the Project

Each project should have a definite time span, in most cases about a month (preferably 2 weeks per project)

1. Teachers and students discuss the project and split the tasks among the members of the team. Assign 1 week for the research and gathering of data
2. Reassemble to layout the information gathered and results. Prepare the report and set up a date for communicating with the partner school.
3. Communication with the partner school via e-mail, netmeeting, chat, etc.

Documentation

1. Time table of activities set up in conjunction with the schedules at the two schools
2. Short report of the progress during the working weeks.
3. Final Project report including the write-ups on the projects that the students worked on, feedback on the collaborative projects and suggestions for improvement.
4. Plan of action for follow up in the future.