Schools support canal events
So as to make schoolteachers and their pupils aware of the waterway's educational potential, the Blue Links project team prepared a programme which was greeted with enthusiasm by the education board of the département Nord.
The project "there was a way ... a canal" had four objectives:
- to encourage intergenerational exchanges, meeting witnesses to the history of the area in order to discover together "the treasures of the canal" throughout the 11 communes crossed.
- improve all-round knowledge using the canal theme to make children aware of its value, its history and its current perspectives.
- to make young people aware of what is happening on the canal today, including the huge changes currently in process.
- to publish and exhibit the many designs and creations produced by children within an educational framework.
Research into the history and future of the canal, editorial, artistic and cultural output... The beauty of this project is that it can approach such a wide variety of subjects, making this a genuine educational project involving French, History, Geography, Civic Instruction and Natural Sciences.
In March 2007, the schools participating in the project received a trunk which they were asked to fill with treasure. From mid-May these trunks circulated from one school to another so that each discovered the others' treasures. In September 2007 the objects were part of a central exhibition at the event "canal en fête".
Several tools were made available to the teachers who agreed to take part: a touring exhibition, environmental education kits, an electronic newsletter and an internet site rich in information which lends itself to collaborative projects.
