The Process

From Plan...

For the 2014/2015 school year, the project leaders worked with 6th class students in Galway Educate Together N.S. (GETNS), developing stories on the subject of North Atlantic sea creatures. This topic was identified with the teacher as one highly suitable for the class, as they had previously done projects in this area, and the EcoScience Writers project would allow for an additional way to further embed their learning. 

For the 2014/2015 school year, the EcoScience Writers in Schools project leaders worked with 6th class students in Galway Educate Together N.S. (GETNS), developing stories on the subject of North Atlantic sea creatures.  In total, 21 illustrated stories were created, with a limited number of print copies made, but on-line flipbooks developed for all of the stories – available here on this website.

To Process...

As the students began to draft their stories and work on their illustrations and layout, some natural author/illustrator partnerships emerged; however, many students chose to both write their stories and draw the pictures themselves.  In these areas, many of the students were at different levels of competence and confidence, and some required more mentoring than others; however, it was beautiful to watch as all of the students worked towards a finished product that they were both happy with, and proud of. 
As the students continued to work on their stories, two of the other project partners – Gerald Glynn of Gesture Media and Maureen Keith of iSupply printing - were brought into the classroom to answer questions and encourage.  

Maureen opened up the student’s minds to all the different ways that their final product could be presented, encouraging several of the students to produce “lift-the-flap” books, and one student to produce a “shape” book.  She also helped the students to better understand the graphic design and printing processes. Gerald went through aspects of the turning their physical stories into virtual ones, showing the “flipbook” technology, and getting their ideas as to how these could best be presented on a website.  The students were very excited by this, understanding that in this way their stories would be available to young people all over the world.

To Production...

Sarah conducted a final grammatical and scientific fact check and edit, and then laid out all of the written work and illustrations using Microsoft Publisher, liaising with the students to ensure that they had control over the final presentation of their stories.  Once the final copy was agreed, Maureen set about overseeing the task of printing all of the stories to a highly durable standard, suitable for many years of handling by the young students of GETNS!  Gerald turned each story into a beautiful interactive on-line flipbook, and developed their virtual home at www.ecosciencewriters.com .

The end result is a set of 20 professionally printed and virtual books, and 1 graphic poster, on the subject of North Atlantic sea creatures, including krill, dolphins, jellyfish, turtles, sharks and more, all suitable for young children, and all written and illustrated with passion and excitement by the amazing  11 and 12 year old students of GETNS 6th class of 2015.