Summary

by Philippe Jeanjacquot — last modified Jan 23, 2014 02:43 PM

Humankind’s greatest creation has always been its cities.

Cities represent the ultimate handwork of our imagination, testifying to our ability to reshape the natural environment in the most lasting ways. From their earliest beginnings, cities have been the places that generated most of mankind’s science, technology, art, culture, religion, & economy.

The evolution of cities embodies the story of humanity. The history of European cities is the history of Europe.

This project is designed to be an analysis of the complexity of European urban history, in Time as well as in Space, enticing the participants both to explore the fundamentals of the urban experience and to share our European civic identity.

It will explore themes and specific moments of the European cultural heritage, as a channel for communication between past, present and a sustainable future; between reality and utopia.

A scientific approach will characterize the project, with a focus on astronomy, archeostronomy, science, physics and technology in the past and present of the European cities.

Students of varying ages and abilities, even with special needs and a migrant/minority background, will work on activities designed to motivate at a range of levels, and will report on their findings through conferences and a dedicated website.

Both the intercultural theme and the innovative strategies of outdoor education can stimulate students’ creativity and will make a great contribution to their personal development and the key life-skills and competencies needed to take their place in society as active European citizens.

The difficulty will be to include all these aspects in a single project. Synthesis will be facilitated by the experience we have developed in our previous Comenius Trilogy: SUN-M.E.T.E.R-T.I.M.E