Our first grade students of secondary school were assigned to work on projects regarding some current environmental issues. Particularly, students were asked to prepare some presentations on their iPads using ‘Keynote’. They were separated in four groups of five and each group had to deal with one of the following environmental issues a) global warming and greenhouse effect, b) acid rain, c) ozone depletion and ozone hole, and d) El Nino effect.

Before the assignment of the projects the students were told about some practical strategies for structuring a presentation. The students were urged to follow a presentation structure which includes a welcoming and informative introduction, a coherent series of main points presented in a logical sequence and a purposeful conclusion.

Students had to describe briefly the issues as well as refer to their causes and effects. They were encouraged to include illustrations and videos in their presentations to make them even more appealing and effective. They were also urged to refer to their sources at the end of their presentations. Students enjoyed working collaboratively and finding out useful and interesting information regarding environmental problems our world is facing.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach involves learning subjects such as physics, through an additional language and it can be very successful in enhancing the learning of languages and other subjects, and developing in the youngsters a positive ‘can do’ attitude towards themselves as language learners.

Our students successfully presented their work in class and are now looking forward to their next projects. Feedback was also provided to students by their teachers so as to contribute to the improvement of their future presentations.