SiiT – School-oriented Interactive Identification Tools
Innovative interactive tools (e-keys) for plant, animal and fungi identification. The keys developed by the former European project “Key to Nature” were implemented further, and new multilingual guides were created. Keys are usable online and in the field via mobile media.
SiiT (School-oriented Interactive Identification Tools) was a three-year project aimed at enhancing knowledge of biodiversity, in an area extending from the eastern Adriatic coasts (Italy) to Western Slovenia. It equipped schools (from primary/basic schools to universities) amateurs and citizens with innovative interactive tools for the identification of plants, animals and fungi.
The keys developed by the former European project Key to Nature were developed further as part of SiiT, and new multilingual guides created. Keys are usable online and in the field with mobile technology. Numerous demonstrations, training seminars, educational activities with schools and research were organised by SiiT. The project involved ten partners from Slovenia and Italy, including universities, educational institutions, museums of natural science, parks and agencies of local development and environmental monitoring, and was funded under the Interreg programme Italy-Slovenia 2007-2013, part of the European Regional Development Fund and national funds.
Basic information
- University of Trieste
- Slovenian Museum of Natural History, Slovenia
- University of Koper/Capodistria, Slovenia
- University of Padua, Italy
- National Education Institute, Slovenia
- Municipality of San Dorligo della Valle/Dolina, Italy
- Regional Park of the Po-Delta, Italy
- Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy
- GAL Venezia Orientale – VEGAL, Italy
- Triglav National Park, Slovenia
- University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Biodiversity is explored through many aspects. European and national legislations require the monitoring of environmental quality to be based on sensitive organisms, better known as "bioindicators" (eg. lichens, aquatic macroinvertebrates, aquatic macrophytes). The people involved must be able to identify those organisms correctly.
SiiT has produced interactive guides dedicated to the identification of these organisms, to be used by technicians directly in the field via media such as PDAs and mobile phones. (Identification key for lichens: http://dbiodbs.units.it/carso/chiavi_pub21?sc=566). More information here.
The classic tools to identify bio-organisms are made by specialists for specialists. Printed on paper, they are generally built in the form of dichotomous keys based on the scheme of biological classification, i.e. on characteristics which are difficult to observe and understand. For this reason, many of the old tools are hardly usable in schools. Information technology now allows us to organise data in a much more efficient way, and to produce identification tools based on easily understandable characteristics, even for children at primary schools.
Software developed under the project “Key to Nature” allows users to change or modify the original keys to use them for different functions. Each guide, for example the guide to plants, may be developed from classwork notes in a school, in relation to features such as ethnobotany, origin, uses, common names, drawings and original photos.
After taking a closer look at the concepts used for identification, the project’s team came to the conclusion that those sorts of keys can best support open and active learning activities. 'Active learning' encompasses ideas about the acquisition of knowledge (e.g. 'constructivism') and the social dimension (e.g. 'collaborative learning'). In addition, problem-based learning approaches with quite strong links to active learning can be extremely well adopted for teaching biodiversity aided by interactive identification keys.
For more information, please visit the following Web pages of the SiiT project: