EDUCATING STUDENTS TO ENHANCE CULTURAL HERITAGE: “LITTLE ARCHAEOLOGISTS WITH A 3D PRINTER” A HERITAGE EDUCATION PROJECT

Abstract

This school project is about Cultural Heritage Education and involves students attending the first year of secondary school. It has the purpose of experimenting with an interdisciplinary education approach which aims at stimulating students’ interest in local history and cultural heritage, through the use of multimedia tools, 3D graphics and printing programs, and the experience of new teaching and learning strategies such as Problem-Based Learning (PBL), learning by doing and peer education. Enhancing the laboratory experience, teamwork and gamification, students can simultaneously negotiate contents/topics and co-build new disciplinary knowledge (closely related to the content and learning objectives indicated in the curriculum of each involved discipline). They will acquire technical skills (Information technology, multimedia and archaeology skills) and cross cultural competences (such as key competences, life skills and other soft skills) and they will develop an encouragement and protection kind of mentality related to cultural heritage, that is essential to feel engaged in a community life and acquire active and democratic citizenship skills.