MEETING in GRANADA

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From Monday 20 to Friday 24, November 2018, took place in Granada the 3rd Transnational Meeting & 2nd Short Exchange of Students within theErasmus+ KA2 project Plugging into Nature with New Technologies. On Sunday 19 arrived to the city 20 students and 10 teachers from the partner schools. Together with them, some 30 students and several teachers from IES La Madraza have also participated in the activities all along the week. 

The first day of the meeting included the lecture Mapping the way to save the environment, in which the data engineer Pablo Pareja Tobes, from the company Vizzuality, offered a spectacular vision of some innovative projects aimed at environmental protection thanks to the treatment of information about deforestation or overfishing that is possible to obtain almost in real time via satellite.

The afternoon was dedicated to a guided tour of the Albaicín, with the obligatory goal of the viewpoint of San Nicolás coinciding with the sunset. 

On Tuesday 21st, an excursion -to the coast was made, which began in Motril with a guided tour of the wetland known as Charca de Suárez (Suarez's Pond), a natural space fortunately preserved from the urban voracity where, among other things, it is possible to spot numerous species of birds in their own ecosystem. The morning was completed with the descent to the Nerja Caves, again with a guided tour in English. Then there was time to eat and bathe (those who dared) on the beach of Burriana, to finish with a walk to the Balcón de Europa (Europe's Balcony) before returning to Granada.

The School's botanical garden and the wildlife pond became the indisputable protagonists of the day on Wednesday. Exploring the educational potential of this type of spaces was one of the main points of the agenda of this meeting and, by the way, IES La Madraza constitutes a specially indicated place to carry out such a purpose. We began with a presentation made by five students, presentation that concluded with a video about the creation of the pond during the academic year 2016-17. This video, which aroused great interest among attendees, is available in English on the School's website. The session continued, outdoors now, with activities that showed in a practical way the many possibilities of teaching and learning that should be developed in the garden and the pond, possibilities that in fact are realities in the school life of IES La Madraza for years now.

Back again indoors, students from the visiting schools had time to present and share their own local work related to the project. 

Just before starting the activities in the botanical garden, was carried out the unveiling of an installation (prepared by Pablo Acosta, a Sciences teacher), , in which, posted to a pole, indicator arrows appeared with the names , including kilometer distances, of all the localities and schools with which IES La Madraza has maintained relations within the framework of the European Comenius and Erasmus + projects since 2010. 

On Thursday, the 24th, it was the turn of the Science Park, an inexcusable visit within the framework of a project whose main objective is to stimulate the students' approach to nature from a scientific perspective. The day had been prepared for months with the support of the team of education advisors of the Park itself, who have shown a very keen interest in this project and offered us a really fascinating repertoire of workshops and tours. 

Finally, the last day of the meeting dedicated the morning to the no less inexcusable visit to the Alhambra. The famous Lions' Court, the Generalife gardens and the towered Alcazaba could have been the perfect culmination for the intense week lived in Granada by our visitors; bu, although it was perfect, was not exactly a culmination. Back to school, a huge paella (cooked by the School's Headmaster) was waiting. After the meal, came the time for certificates to be handed out and then the school pop &rock band, where students and teachers play and sing together, offered a farewell concert. 

EXTERNAL LINKS

This is the video about the pond mentioned above

A comment on the lecture Mapping the Way...

PIN on Science Park website