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Packing UNESCO Suitcases
Start date: Sep 1, 2014, End date: Aug 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

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 – propose 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 includes three schools in three countries that represent different eras of European art and culture as well as various European environments. Specifically, our proposed collaboration will involve 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 will extend to Opole, Poland, where Krakow, a UNESCO City of Literature will be examined. Finally, the project will include a school located in Potsdam, Germany, where students can rediscover some of the earlier European influences of the 18th century at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sans-Souci Palace. We seek to explore these specific UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the three partner countries. We specifically want to delve into their historic and geographical significance and how they influence lives of our students today. This will be done by having the students “pack” UNESCO museum suitcases which will include a variety of unique informational and educational archives of the World Heritage Sites we will explore. These mobile storages condense the traditional functions of a museum: Collecting, preserving, archiving, researching, documenting, presenting, making and communicating. We have planned three workshops within a 24 month time period. Each workshop will span over five days, during which one of the selected World Heritage Sites will be closely studied. During each of the three workshops, ten students from each school will participate and work together to use and further develop their musical and artistic skills and talents. With the help of the storyline and mind-mapping method, students will be guided to intrinsically and actively gain a deeper understanding for the World Heritage Sites. Additionally, we will employ cross-curricular methods, integrating students’ existing knowledge to develop their own connection to world cultural heritage and further be able to construct their own models about the World Heritages Sites. The “museum suitcase” thus involves various tactile, hands-on and perhaps even experimental records and is enriching to the regional and national cultural education of children. This project will aid 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 want to increase perspective towards the national European environment and its differences but again look for similarities in the history and culture of Europe. We plan to provide a guiding learning structure to all students. This starts 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, will include a variety of medial and visual inputs (museum, internet, books,…). The students will work independently on their own scenarios for their suitcases. Teachers will not serve as the sole conveyors of knowledge, but will be providers of research and artistic skills employed by the students to guide their own learning. The end of the project will result in three suitcases, which will be provided to the respective World Heritage Sites. These may benefit the surrounding communities in the long run. In collaboration with the University of Paderborn, who launched the UNESCO suitcases, we will centrally archive the products. A further development will occur as well in the network of the UNESCO Project schools as we plan at the next UNESCO Conference of German schools to provide an interim report and present the preliminary results. A positive effect is particularly apparent among the students who participated in the Project. The collaboration with multilingual groups involving children from European countries will leave an impression on them and notably, strengthen their educational path. By working with regional and cultural themes, students are given the opportunity to closely observe their own region and culture and thus, sustain their identity. Secondly, they are able to reflectively perceive how children from another country view their own home as well as their identity. Through this project, each of the participating students will have an enhanced understanding of European cultural, geographical and historical ideas and aid in the further development of the UNESCO suitcase design in the region.

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