Comenius project “European Cities – yesterday, today, tomorrow
Report of the starting conference in Berlin 14th till 17th of October, 2009
Participants:
Teachers:
Ada Pinna, Franca Giglio, Rita Pinna (Cagliari)
Maria Teresa Carfoni, Carlo Panizzon (Rome)
Patricia Mateo , Lourdes Bosch (Barcelona)
Christian Düntsch, Thomas Schäfer, Christine Hertel, Silke Matzeit, Achim Rohde (Berlin)
Students:
4 from Cagliari; 2 from Barcelona; 3 from Rome; 5 from Berlin
Wednesday, 14th
All groups were welcome in Berlin Carl Zeiss Oberschule in the afternoon by Mr. Rohde, the head of the department. Afterwards, the students went to their host families, the teachers to their hotel.
At night, teachers meet in a restaurant in Berlin Mitte for getting to know each other.
Thursday, 15th
The conference started with a delay, so the headmaster of CZO could not welcome the delegations at the beginning of the meeting.
Thus the conference started after everybody was welcome by Mr. Düntsch with a tour through CZO guided by the host students and Mr. Rohde. Then, the guest students introduced their schools and towns.
During the students were visiting the lessons, the teachers started with the discussion about the topics and the organisation of the project, they also tried to find a red thread for the students' discussions on the next day.
The results:
-the students should discuss the following topics:
-districts of urban function they want to explore concerning their past and their present e.g.
- services, finance and commerce; migrants; big housing estate and architecture; governmental area
-what do they like or dislike about their city and the partner cities
-which criteria does a city have to fulfil to be acknowledged as an “open minded city”
-the product after the first year will be the touring exhibition which will show the results of the students' exploration of the first year. It will be put together during the autumn conference in 2010 and will be send successively to the other participating schools after having been exhibited for some months. This “old fashioned medium” is ok to show the past and the present of the towns.
At the end of the project the students will show their working results of their imaginations of a “city of the future” in a contemporary form - an IT exhibition.
In the afternoon the host students organized a sightseeing tour for their guests through Berlin Mitte, Silke Matzeit gave a tour for the guest teachers and the German ones.
Friday, 16th
Topics:
1)discussion about the subjects/topics of the research and about the tasks for the students' work
2)setting the timetable for the next year and the dates of the meetings
3)clarification of responsibilities of every school in the project
ad 1) In the first part of the conference students and teachers discussed in separate groups.
Under guidance of Mrs. Hertel the students:
–shared their knowledge about the partner cities
–compared their cities by discussing the everyday life and the advantages and disadvantages of life in these cities
–found out the points of mutual interest on which research could be interesting
The results:
The students agreed on doing research on the following items throughout the next two years, listed according to popularity:
–historical development of the district
–migrants
–architecture
–tourism for old/ young people
–traffic vs. public transportation system
–nature
One central question was: What do the students expect of the partners’ cities and how do they imagine them being like?
The teachers' discussion was about the structure and the organisation of the subject. The questions which had eagerly to be answered were:
- How can we reduce the high number of topics and districts for the exploration? And:
- How can we compare the towns?
The result to Q 1 is shown in the following grid:
Economy / Mobility
Social Life / Ethnicity
History
city/ centre
school
neighbourhood city/centre
school
neighbourhood
Functionality (today) city/centre
school
neighbourhood city/centre
school
neighbourhood
The result to Q 2:
The over-all comparison of the cities seems to be very difficult so we decided to compare the cities in special points of interest one with another, for example Berlin and Barcelona concerning the industrialisation or Cagliari and Barcelona concerning their harbours.
The comparison of both discussions – the students' and the teachers' ones - showed that the districts and topics, the students want to explore coincide with the structure, the teachers had developed.
The linking questions could be:
Where do young people like to go?
What can we do in the special areas or districts?
ad 2) timetable (see below)
ad 3) etwinning: Carl-Zeiss and IES Joan Brossa
evaluation: Liceo Augusto
quiz to the exhibition: open , Liceo Michelangelo (?)
In the afternoon, the guest teachers and students visited the Pergamon Museum and Friedrichstraße. In the evening, all guests and hosts met for a common dinner at Sony Centre.
Saturday, 17th
The delegations from Barcelona and Rome departed, students and teachers from Cagliari visited the city and some museums of Berlin.
Conclusion of the meeting:
-We should make the guided tours or explorations also to more unknown areas;
-We should inform the guest students also about problems in our towns / cities, like
environment or traffic problems or unemployment, …
-We should take into account of Patricia Mateos and students' questions:
“Where and how do the young people use their city? Do they use the city
districts at all?”
What do the students expect of the partners’ cities and how do they imagine them being like?
-The students from Berlin wish to spend more free time only with their guest students thus it would be interesting to think about an extension of the visits
Report: Christian Düntsch, Christine Hertel