Peace Project (Serenity Quest)

Come and join us in our quest for peace in our neighborhood.

 

Project description  and summary

 

In this Peace Project (our Serenity Quest) middle school children in Richmond, Virginia would like to discuss the following topics with their peers around the world:

 

What kind of problems or violence do we see in your neigborhood such as domestic violence, drug-violence, and murder?

How do we bring peace in our neighborhoods?

How can we cope with violence?

How can we help our neighbors and communities to seek peace?

 

As we begin to share our ideas, thoughts, and strategies, we would like all our friends around the world to give us feedback. Do you have such problems in your communities?  How do you all help your communities to see peace?

Required materials

 

Teachers will need scanner or digital camera to send us images.  You will post your images and text on kidspace.  We hope to produce a CD with video, our final presentation, and images.  All schools who participate in this project will receive a CD in Fall 2003.

 

Project timeline

 

Our final presentation will be held in the IMAX dome of the Science Museum of Virginia on June 23^rd at 5:30 pm.  We would like to meet our friends around the world (at least from one country) during our presentation using our videoconferencing.  This is not a requirement to participate in this project. 

 

Richmond students will follow this schedule.  But others can choose their own.

March 10:  Posting of our responses to question 1

March 17:  Question 2

March 24:  Question 3

March 31:  Question 4

Until May 31^st, we will compile all our responses to create our final presentation and to produce our video.

Please respond to our postings to expand our perspective on peace.

 

Dates:  Even though we will follow these dates, any teacher around the world can use their schedule convenient to them to post responses and comments.

 

Target age group

 

Even though this project is designed for middle school students in Richmond, VA, the theme of peace can be discussed by any age group.  We would love to collaborate with partners of all ages who are willing to seek peace in their neighborhoods.

 

Project language

 

Main language of the project:  English.

But we would love to have our project partners who speak other languages.

 

Curriculum connections and objectives

 

Irrespective of the curriculum and the country, all educators develop problem solving and communication skills for the children to live successfully in the digital age.  The project directly focuses on these skills as the children discuss the social problems of violence in the neighborhood.  They develop strategies to cope with violence and to identify methods of inducing peace in their neighborhoods.  

 

Project resources

 

1. UNESCO publication on Peace education - Teacher Guide

                http://www.ncte-in.org/pub/unesco/unesco.htm

 

 

2. Teaching Guide on Preventing Violent International Conflicts

                http://www.usip.org/ed/Products/TeachingGuides/TG1999.html

 

 

            c.  Tolerance:  A threshold of Peace

                http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0009/000981/098178e.pdf

 

How to join the project

 

List the steps that teachers should take when participating in the project.  This is very important.  If this isn’t clear, you will get many e-mails from teachers who aren’t sure what to do.

 

1. Teachers should register for the project with the project moderator.  Give the moderator’s e-mail address so that registration information can be sent. Send the names of your participants to Patti Weeg who will make an account in KidSpace for participants.

                       

Teacher’s name	 Mano Talaiver
Teacher’s e-mail address	 mano@smv.org
School	 Science Museum of Virginia
City/country	 Richmond, Virginia, USA
Number of students	 18 in Richmond site

 

2. All participating students must answer the 4 Kidlink questions.  They can do this on the WWW: http://www.kidlink.org/response/

Click on “Register” on the left sidebar for the registration page.  Be sure you have permission to post student work on the WWW and student images if you choose to do this.  School districts usually have their own requirements that teachers must follow.

 

3. Teachers (and students if applicable) subscribe to the mailing list where the project will take place.  Teachers subscribe to the coordinator’s mailing list.  This could be Kidproj-coord and/or Kidspace-coord.  Teachers can subscribe to these lists on the web:  http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/sub.html

 

 

Project Activities

 

1. List in order the project activities the students will be doing.   Be clear and specific in your expectations.

 

Step 1:  The students post responses to these questions.  (one per week)

i.  What kind of problems or violence do we see around us?

ii.  How do we bring peace in our neighborhoods?

iii.  How can we cope with violence?

iv.  How can we help our communities to seek peace?

 

            Step 2:  Post images meaningful and directly correlated with your responses.  These images can be pictures or student art-work. 

 

2. Is collaboration a part of the project? 

 

Our students would like email messages from friends around the world.  They would like feedback on their peace strategies.  The feedback can be posted on the comment section of each page in the serenity quest section of Kidspace.

 

3. Will classes choose partners to work with within the project? 

 

Students within one classroom are grouped and work collaboratively.  For the first year, we do not have plans to group students across the classrooms or cities or nations.

 

4. Will students use art in their project? Make sure participants understand the guidelines for including images in KidSpace pages.

 

We would like original art work depicting peace in our neighborhoods.  Please follow the guidelines for including images in Kidspace (See 10 below). 

 

5. We encourage students around the world to post comments to our pages on peace.
6.  

Images in KidSpace

 

1. Obey copyright laws and only use images that you have expressed permission to use on the web.  This means that images taken from websites without the owner’s permission may not be put on Kidlink webpages.  Teachers placing student images on the web should have permission from parents to do this.

 

2. Encourage use of student drawings instead of clipart.  We discourage use of clipart in our projects.  All student art should be identified with the name of the student artist.

 

3. Be sure to give specific directions for uploading image files to KidSpace.  These directions are found in the “Help” link on the top bar on any KidSpace page.  Images should be no wider than 350 pixels and must be in .jpg or .gif format. 

 

Project evaluation by teachers

 

The serenity quest project of Richmond is an after-school project.  We will not evaluate the students to give grades or to place them in a grading scale.  However, the students are required to complete the project to receive special certification, join the video production team,  and to present the final project combining video and kidspace responses.

 

Rubric for evaluating this project:  Rate from 1 to 5.

 

1. The student’s answer to question 1 clearly specifies examples in neighborhood.
2. The student has clearly stated strategies for bringing peace in neighborhoods.
3. The response to coping with violence shows concern of students for others, respect for others, and value of peace.
4. Students express the need for all community members to seek peace clearly.
5. Student has shown evidence of research in finding solutions to the problem of violence.
6. Student art work is creative and colorful.
7. Student has been sensitive and responsible in posting comments to other pages.
8. Student works cooperatively with other students in the classroom in words and respects the partners.

 

 

 

Project moderator(s)

 

Identify the project moderator(s) for the project and give e-mail addresses where the moderators can be reached.

 

Mano Talaiver, Director, Learning Technologies

Science Museum of Virginia

mano@smv.org

 

This project is sponsored by Garfield Childs Memorial Fund and the Science Museum of Virginia.

 

Other Peace Projects in Kidlink

https://www.kidlink.org/kidspace/start.php?HoldNode=1428&HoldNav=1884