Procedure

In the first online lesson, students learnt about the history of flight, from mythology to the 20th century, and got to know the first men who thought about flying and those who made it feasible. After brainstorming questions about the means of transport, students read about the History of flight in NASA's webpage and then watched the video “The history of flying” from the Airbus Foundation (AF) webpage. They were divided in groups in breakout rooms and wrote questions on topics assigned to them by the teacher. In the next lesson they designed the quiz with the teacher’s help and played it in Kahoot to check knowledge acquisition and understanding. Students had fun and learnt the first useful information that immersed them into the world of aviation.

In the second lesson we read about the history of the Wright Brothers and the invention of the airplane. Students studied the webpage about the Wright Brothers in Ducksters and answered a 10 question trivia quiz to evaluate the knowledge gained on the topic.

In the third lesson students watched the video How to design an airplane from the AF. The aim was to provoke students’ curiosity in order to research the topic, in the Wright Brothers webpage, of how the Wright Brothers designed their plane and what they had to take into account in order to make it fly. 

After investigating the topic, we downloaded the picture of the Kitty Hawk from Wikipedia commons and uploaded it to Thinglink. Then we included the parts of the plane in the picture (wings, chords, cables, tail, rudder, etc) and explained their function according to what students have read.

Finally we visited online the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to see the Kitty Hawk which is exhibited in the museum. The students were impressed that the plane was still intact and in good condition and that someone could actually see if from up close.

In the fourth lesson students learned about Amelia Earhart, the first woman to cross the Atlantic solo, and were very impressed by her achievements. But they were also very sad to know that she got lost and was never to be found. Students studied the webpage about Amelia Earhart in Ducksters and answered a 10 question trivia quiz to evaluate the knowledge gained on the topic.

With this in mind, in the fifth and final lesson, we investigated the possible causes of Amelia’s failure to cross the Pacific Ocean. Students watched the videos from AF “What happens when you fly”, “How airplanes fly in bad weather”, “The invisible highways in the skies” and made guesses and discussed the problems Amelia may have encountered during her last flight according to what they have understood from the videos. Then, in an online brainstorming activity in AnswerGarden, the students expressed the most possible causes of her disappearance. They also voted in a Tricider the most plausible reason of her disappearance.

At the end of the lessons, students expressed satisfaction or dissatisfaction of learning and knowledge acquisition by filling in a Google form administered to them at the end of the lessons. Students reacted to statements and expressed their views by choosing from a likert type scale from 1.Not at all, 2.Enough, and 3.A lot, what they learned(or not) and liked (or not) in the lesson. Then, teacher and students will discussed the results of the Google form in order to exchange views and opinions and suggest possible ways of improving teaching and learning objectives.

Discussion

Most of the learning objectives have been achieved. From the 21 students that have filled in the form, most of them learnt about the history of flight, about the pioneers of flying, about the invention of the airplane, how to design their own paper airplane, the causes of a flight not going well. Most of them liked the videos from the Airbus Foundation, enjoyed making and playing the Kahoot quiz, enjoyed making the Thinglink picture of the Kitty Hawk, enjoyed their visit to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, enjoyed playing the quizzes about The Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart, think they know what happened to the airplane Amelia Earhart was flying in and why she got lost, liked the online lessons, liked the online communication and collaboration with their classmates and most of them think their English teacher is great and enjoyed her lessons (20/21! You can’t please them all, can you?)

Teacher and student relationships have played an important role in achieving these learning outcomes. I have been working with these students since last year and they are used to doing collaborative group activities and using web 2.0 tools for projects. Their level of competency in English varies, from A2 to B1 according to the CEFR, and I tried to simplify the procedure for the weaker students (using mother tongue, explaining) and make it more interesting and challenging for the stronger ones (assigning roles, giving initiatives).

Personally I was surprised at the students’ reactions towards the topic of the LS. When I suggested it they gladly agreed to take part and their enthusiasm during the implementation was obvious. I gained a lot of satisfaction and useful insights of how to better prepare online lessons, teach and engage all students and making effective use of resources while designing this LS.

This LS could have been implemented with the aid of other colleagues, e.g. the teacher of technology who would help the students make a model a plane, the teacher of Physics who could talk to the students about aerodynamics and turbulence, the History teacher who could describe in detail the historical context of the topic of flight. Collaboration among teachers of other disciplines is hard while teaching online during a pandemic that has isolated the school community to their personal premises behind a screen. Let’s hope and pray this situation ends soon and be positive and optimistic about the future!