This project brings together students and teachers from different countries on a virtual journey to explore the world’s animals. Participants will research, write, and illustrate stories about an animal from their country, and then use robotics to digitally simulate the animal’s journey. The project culminates in a collaborative digital storybook, a multilingual audiobook, and a virtual exhibition, allowing students to share their creations and celebrate their work with a global audience.

Educational Objectives

• Foster Social-Emotional Development and Collaboration: Children will learn to share, take turns, and work together on group projects like creating a shared map or a class story.
• Build Foundational Literacy and Oral Language Skills: The focus is on listening to and retelling stories, using their own words to describe animals, and expressing ideas through drawings and simple verbal sentences.
• Develop Fine and Gross Motor Skills: Activities will involve a lot of drawing, coloring, cutting, and manipulating small objects. They’ll also use gross motor skills to move and guide robots on large floor maps.
• Introduce Basic Scientific Concepts: Children will explore the natural world by learning about different animals and their habitats through sensory play and observation.
• Encourage Early Computational Thinking: Using simple, screen-free robots, kids learn about giving clear, sequential instructions, understanding cause and effect, and basic problem-solving as they program a robot to move.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will collaborate effectively with peers from different cultures to achieve a shared goal.This is the core of the project. Activities like creating a joint interactive map, sharing research, and collaborating on a digital book require students to work together across geographical and cultural divides.
• Students will apply digital tools to research, create, and share their work.The project is heavily centered on digital deliverables. Students will learn to use a variety of tools, including those for creating interactive maps, digital books, audio recordings, and virtual exhibitions. This outcome is fundamental to their success in the modern digital world.
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of storytelling by writing and illustrating a narrative.The project’s central deliverable is the multilingual digital storybook. This outcome focuses on the creative process of developing a narrative—from initial drafts to final illustrations and audio narration.
• Students will conduct basic research to gather and synthesize information about an animal.In Month 2, students are tasked with researching their chosen animal’s habitat, traditions, and legends. This activity teaches them to find information and present their findings clearly.
• Students will practice multilingual communication by recording narrations in their native language and in English.This outcome directly addresses the multilingual nature of the project. It encourages students to practice English as a common language while valuing and preserving their native tongue, which is a key component of the project.
• Students will develop critical thinking and questioning about the human-animal relationship.The project encourages students to think about how different cultures view and interact with animals.They’ll explore ethical questions: «Do we have a responsibility to protect these animals?» «How do traditions and legends reflect a culture’s relationship with nature?»
• Students will  reflect on identity and cultural heritage through the lens of animals.By researching an animal tied to their country, students connect with their own culture and heritage.They can discuss how an animal becomes a symbol of a nation or a group of people, and what that symbol means.