News . Best Practices Urban Planning from the perspective of students

Care: The students dealt with a real problem related to improving the quality of life of the residents of the area where they live. This problem concerned the reconstruction of part of the road network, in order to facilitate the movement of vehicles in accordance with the rules of urban planning. The students who participated in the activities were 12 years old, studying in the 6th grade and totaling 13 members.

Know: The students used knowledge to collect information regarding the history of their place and the road construction of previous years using search engines and the rules of literature review, they used a text editor and statistical analysis software to write their project and analyze the data that collected from the questionnaire they constructed according to research methodology standards on the needs of their village residents. They also used mapping and construction software to observe satellite maps and process them to build models. The skills that the students practiced at a cognitive level were related to sciences such as Statistics (Mathematics), History (Modern History of Greece), Informatics (knowledge & use of Word-Excel),
Visual Arts (model construction). Through these academic subjects which were interdisciplinary combined and interdisciplinary developed, skills were cultivated such as the processing of cognitive content, the ability to distinguish useful information from a multitude of sources, the skills of digital map processing, the skills of strategic planning and mapping, the skills of problem-solving, cooperative learning communication skills, etc.

Do: At the end, the students prepared a presentation of their study and a projection presentation of the entire research process. Websites were posted and they built a mockup with their proposal for the proposed changes to their village’s road network. Their model was donated to the Museum of Cretan Ethnology as a kind gesture of offering to their place. They completed the activities honorably at the level of research and as a team at the level of processing, editing and production supported by their families and members of the local community.

Conclusions on Open Schooling: The activity was integrated into the curriculum. It was useful for the local community, since it solved a functional problem of the village, related to the social issues of the villagers, quite challenging as it was the first time a similar action was taken by students involved in real research conditions and innovative as the students’ proposal was advanced by themselves and acted as a barrier to the progress of their country. Open schooling can be both useful and challenging for other teachers because it will go a long way in familiarizing them with designing cross-curricular and interdisciplinary action plans, although it requires a lot of coordination and consistency in planning to ensure success. A flexible design is proposed that will prevent sudden changes and propose alternative solutions.

The change/innovation was supported by:

[ x ] School management [ x ] school association/network [ x ] Local government [ ] Other: ________________________________

Student results: Students were active and active during the research process. They were consistent in the work they each undertook in their group and seemed to assimilate relatively easily the scientific knowledge they needed to use. Their familiarity with NTs was very helpful in dealing with digital hardware and software. They learned how a scientific study is structured and how it is conducted. They seemed to enjoy the role of researcher to the point of engaging in the tasks of the other groups as well. As an example, one student mentioned “Did you see, ma’am, that I can work in other groups and not just the one I’m in?” Their activation productively cultivated the speech skills of both production and comprehension of oral and
written texts.

This practice contributed to the increase of:
[ x ] engaging families with sciences [ x ] involving girls in science [ x ] raising awareness among students about careers in the natural sciences

Please specify: Parents participated in the collection of questionnaires for the student survey. The girls actively participated in the mapping and literature review and in general all students showed a special interest in digital maps and the contribution of geomorphological terrain to road construction.