Packing UNESCO Suitcases Erasmus Project

Project Title

Packing UNESCO Suitcases

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Creativity and culture; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

It is the UNESCO’s duty to promote international collaboration in education, science, and culture in order to foster universal respect and united coalition between people — generally speaking, to disseminate human rights.
We – the three schools – proposed to form a UNESCO Erasmus+ project, in order to strive for the above mentioned universal aspirations and goals, which are objectives of the general education concept of the European countries and a part of our schools. The collaboration included (umfasste es – oder umfasst es 3 Schulen immer noch? – im 2. Fall wäre includes besser)three schools in three countries that represent different eras of European art and culture as well as various European environments. Specifically, our proposed collaboration involved a school from Marsala, Italy, where some of the earliest remains of European culture, including Phoenician and Greek artifacts, can be discovered. Additionally, this project has extended to Opole, Poland, where Krakow, a UNESCO City of Literature was examined. Finally, the project included a school located in Potsdam, Germany, where students rediscovered some of the earlier European influences of the 18th century at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sans-Souci Palace.
We have explored these specific UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the three partner countries. We specifically wanted to delve into their historic and geographical significance and how they influence the lives of our students today.
This has been done by having the students “pack” UNESCO museum suitcases which included a variety of unique informational and educational archives of the World Heritage Sites we have explored. These mobile storages condensed the traditional functions of a museum: collecting, preserving, archiving, researching, documenting, presenting, making and communicating.
We have done three workshops within a 24 month time period. Each workshop spaned over five days, in order to study the selected World Heritage Sites closely. Ten students from each school participated and worked together in these workshops, developing their musical and artistic skills and talents.
With the help of the storyline and mind-mapping method, students have been guided to intrinsically and actively gain a deeper understanding for the World Heritage Sites. Additionally, we have employed cross-curricular methods, integrated students’ existing knowledge to develop their own connection to world cultural heritage and further enabled them to construct their own models about the World Heritages Sites. The “museum suitcase” thus involved various tactile, hands-on and perhaps even experimental records and enriched to the regional and national cultural education of children.
This project aided the students of the partner schools in becoming familiar with their own regional environment as a result of their cultural background. On the other hand, we have increased perspective towards the national European environment and its differences but again have been looking for similarities in the history and culture of Europe.
We have provided a guiding learning structure to all students. This started with key questions to plan and prepare the five-day workshop to increase awareness of their own surroundings and the partner countries’ culture and nature. These structured learning environments, prepared by the teachers, have included a variety of medial and visual inputs (museum, internet, books,…). The students worked independently on their own scenarios for their suitcases. Teachers did not serve as the sole conveyors of knowledge. They were providers of research and artistic skills employed by the students to guide their own learning process. The end of the project resulted in three suitcases, provided to the respective World Heritage Sites. These benefit the surrounding communities in the long run. In collaboration with the University of Paderborn, who launched the UNESCO suitcases, the products have been centrally archived. A further development occured in the network of the UNESCO Project schools as we are planing to provide an interim report and present the preliminary results at the UNESCO Conference of German schools.
A positive effect was particularly apparent among the students who participated in the project. The collaboration with multilingual groups involving children from European countries have left an impression on them and notably, strengthened their educational path. By working with regional and cultural themes, students had the opportunity to closely observe their own region and culture and thus, sustain their identity. Furthermore, they were able to reflectively perceive how children from other countries view their own home as well as their identity. Through this project, each of the participating students had an enhanced understanding of European cultural, geographical and historical ideas and aided in the further development of the UNESCO suitcase design in the region.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 74970 Eur

Project Coordinator

Grundschule am Humboldtring & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Publiczna Szkola Podstawowa nr 28 w Opolu
• 2 Circolo Didattico Cavour Marsala