Erasmus+ project "Jump into the STREAM" in Zaragoza, Spain

Monday 18th March

This week our group of six students & two teachers have travelled to Zaragoza, Spain, as part of the project “Jump into the STREAM”. Each country participating takes a particular aspect of STREAM, and this week Spain is focussing on a both architecture and mathematics. 

After two long travel days, we arrived late last night, and the students were reunited with their hosts who they had last seen only four weeks ago in Finland. Because of our late arrival into Zaragoza, the programme started a little later on the Monday morning which gave us time to recover. We began the day with the usual social time – an opportunity for the students to reunite with friends they’d met in other countries, as well as get to know new participants on the project. After all, with four schools involved this was a large group.

We were then ushered into the school hall where we were treated to a performance by the middle-school students who were commemorating world water day later that week. This part of Spain can be particularly dry in the summer months, and so it’s a topic which is vital to the local people. After this, we were given a tour of the school building and grounds, and began to enjoy the very different weather that Zaragoza was experiencing, compared to back home in Finland (from minus twenty to plus twenty-seven!)

After the tour, we split into two groups to take part in rotating afternoon activities. One activity was an origami lesson led by other students of the school, and the other was a chemistry activity led by the school principal. In the origami class, we had the opportunity to try to create a delicate Mudejar (this is the architectural style common in this part of Spain) star, from 9 small pieces of coloured paper. Meanwhile in the chemistry class, we investigated the different coloured flames that can be produced by burning different chemical solutions.

After this, our day in the school ended at traditional Spanish lunch time (a little late for us!), and students had the opportunity to spend the afternoon with their friends. Many of them travelled across the city to the extensive shopping mall in the south, enjoying the warm evenings that were on offer this week.

Tuesday 19th March

Today was an exciting day on the schedule as we were looking forward to rafting down the river Ebro and enjoying the sights of the city from the water. Before this, we were given a tour of the city by students of an interesting subject on offer at our host school – ‘Culture and Aragonese heritage’. These students took us to many of the churches, cathedrals, and key sites of the city, explaining their historical importance as well as how they developed over time, and the features of Mudejar architecture which give them their distinctive look.

Again, today we were gifted unseasonal warmth, and so we thoroughly enjoyed our morning walk in the sunshine. After this tour ended, we shuffled onto a tram and proceeded to head out of Zaragoza, and upstream of the Ebro, ready for rafting.

On arrival at the banks of the river, it was clear that some students were more prepared than others for the potential of falling in the water. Whilst some were in swimming gear and water shoes, others wore socks and jeans. Thankfully, there were no falls into the water, only some fun paddling together at our mid-way break. Still, we enjoyed watching the landscape around the river change from the quiet and peaceful wildlife upstream, to the bustle of Zaragoza. Our boat guides also talked us through each of the bridges we passed under, as well as the key sites we watched as we sailed past. We also found out a lot about the history of the river, and the impact that industry in the 1960s had on the quality of the water, as well as how the locals have fought to clean up the river.

After a few hours of rowing in the sunshine, we arrived at our dock and disembarked. Students again had the afternoon to explore the city with their new friends, and recover from their sailing experience.

Wednesday 20th March

Wednesday began in our host school, with a focus again on Mudejar architecture and art styles. Students had the opportunity to take a ceramic star (much like the ones we have seen adorn the buildings of Zaragoza) and paint it in a variety of colours in the Mudejar style. They were then fired to set, and students took them home with them as a memory of their time in Spain. It was a relaxing morning of creativity, and students enjoyed the opportunity to be around their peers in the classroom.

After this, we took the bus across Zaragoza to the Aljafería palace. This was an amazing tour of Mudejar architecture in a palace which originated from the 11th century, at a time when Islam ruled Spain. Students could see how the building developed from its Islamic roots, with later Christian influences. Much of the building was preserved from its original, which is incredible considering its age. It also housed a beautiful garden with orange trees and a waterfall, which were great for photographs in the spring sunshine.

With Thursday being a long day, our day ended after the palace, giving students the chance to be social with one another and rest before our journey on Thursday.

Thursday 21st March

Today we were visiting a small town approximately 2 hours south of Zaragoza – Teruel. We arrived at around 11:00, and the landscape was very different to Zaragoza. Whilst there, you could see across the city and for miles around, in Teruel, we were in hills and valleys. On arrival in Teruel, we were given a tour of the city by a dedicated guide. This guide taught us the story of Teruel, and how it was formed (both historically, and mythologically), he also showed us the Mudejar towers of the city, explaining how and why they were built. It was here that we first heard about the ‘lovers of Teruel’, one of the key stories of the city.

After our tour, students had free time to explore the old square (complete with a fountain said to bring you luck in love) and find lunch. After lunch we finally dived into the story of the lovers of Teruel, by visiting their mausoleum. The story is similar to Romeo and Juliet in many ways, and the mausoleum and adjacent church are incredibly beautiful, even if the stairs up the tower were rocking a bit under our feet!

Our guide in the mausoleum encouraged our students to take part in a drama/roleplay of the lovers’ story (we enjoyed watching other students pretending to be a horse, for example), before we boarded our coach in the evening to return to Zaragoza.

Friday 22nd March

Today was our final day in Zaragoza, and we had really enjoyed our time in Spain. Our hosts had taken great care of us, and the weather had been a welcome change from our long winter in Finland. This morning, the focus of the programme was on digital tools.

Our day started at school, split into two groups. One undertook a programming class whilst another took part in a robotics class. In the programming class, students were given access to a coding software and an electronics ‘briefcase’. The briefcase had a multitude of different tools which the students taught to sing a variety of songs, but the main task was to train the briefcase to be an ultrasonic sound sensor which could detect when it was too close to an object. The idea was to be able to use it as a tool to help the visually impaired navigate a foreign environment safely.

In the robotics class, students were given a small driving robot and access to a programme which could instruct the robot on which way to move. Many students enjoyed being able to press a key and ‘drive’ the robot, like a remote-control car, but the real challenge was to teach it to use its visual sensor to follow a black line on its own. Some students were successful, but others had robots who simply ran around the room on their own. Either way, it was an entertaining and challenging morning for the students.

After this, our week was coming to an end, and students were taken to the school playground to build a large dome which would hopefully be used as a display piece for our final group photograph. Whilst the dome was under construction students had the chance to sign post cards for each other with messages of thanks. Then, for the photo, we had to work as a group to lift each section of the dome at the same time to keep its weight evenly distributed. Unfortunately, our knowledge of architecture was clearly still not complete, as once the dome reached around shoulder height, someone moved a little too slowly, and the whole structure collapsed. The group picture still looks good, regardless!

After this, students had one final evening with their hosts and new friends. We packed up our belongings and early on the Saturday morning, we began our journey home