Mobility in Cartagena, Spain
This short-term exchange of groups of pupils took place in Cartagena (C5, Spain). The meeting lasted for 5 days, from Monday (13th March 2023) to Friday (17th March 2023), with Sunday (12th March 2023) and Saturday (18th March 2023) as travelling days.
A total amount of 17 pupils and 10 teachers from the sending schools participated in the mobility: four pupils and two teachers from Reunion Island (France); three pupils and two teachers from Romania; four pupils and two teachers from Turkey; three pupils and two teachers from the Czech Republic; finally, three students and two teachers from Greece. With regard to the school from the country of venue (Spain), 17 students and their families hosted the 17 guest students, and 4 teachers accompanied the 10 guest teachers.
1st day
Activities at Salesianos Cartagena School.
− Tour through the school – Guest students and teachers were accompanied by Spanish teachers. They went through the different facilities in the school.
− Talk: “Marine life”. All (guest and host students and teachers) attended a talk carried out by 1st High School year students from Salesianos Cartagena. They learnt about submarine life at the Mediterranean and Minor Sea in the Region coast.
− Carthaginians and Romans show and explanation. A group of authentic Carthaginians and Romans invaded the school and gave a detailed explanation about their history.
− Flamenco show and workshop: students from Salesianos Cartagena dance and teach guest students and teachers how to dance Flamenco.
− Spanish language workshop and experiment with water workshop: teachers from Salesianos Cartagena organised and taught these workshops for guest teachers and students.
Third day:
Reception at the Cartagena Town Hall: all the teams (guests and hosts) were welcomed at the Town Hall by the town councilman David Martínez Noguera.
Visit to San Pedro del Pinatar Salines. Located next to the Mediterranean Sea, these salines host different migratory birds, and several marine species. All the teams took part in a Gymkhana. They were divided into 5 teams, and went through the salines and the beach taking pictures, that they uploaded onto a Google Form the Spanish teachers had prepared.
2nd day
Museums and dissemination in the town centre:
− All the teams (guest and host teachers and students) visited the “Arqua Museum”, the national submarine archaeology museum in Spain which , where they learnt about navigation, commercial relationships, boat building… in the Ancient period, bearing in mind what Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans left in our coast as archaeological remains.
− All the teams visited the Roman Forum Museum, where they learnt about the ancient town of Carthago Nova, and the area around the forum, where Roman built their baths that were essential for the social daily life as well as for the hygiene, and they extracted water from the
undersoil through different wells and built a sewage system.
− Dissemination activity: after lunch, all the teams carried out a dissemination activity distributing leaflets and cloth bags among the citizens from Cartagena. Leaflets explained the aims and activities of our project, while cloth bags had the project logo on them.
Fourth day :
Visit to the Centre of Interpretation “Planeta Azul” in Cabo de Palos (Blue Planet), where all teams (guest and host) leant about the formation of the south-eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, the marine reserve of Cabo de Palos, the navigation at the area with different lighthouses, and the situation of the “Mar Menor” (Minor Sea), where pollution caused by agriculture and tourism has created an environmental problem very difficult to solve.
Politicians, researchers, universities… are trying to improve this situation, which has caused an important impact on the economic activity in this area.
Fifth day :
Visit to the Interpretative Itinerary in “La Huerta de Murcia” (area of cultivation): “La Ñora” waterwheel, “Aljufía” canal and its mills, and “Los Jerónimos” Monastery. All the teams (guest and host) learnt about this irrigation network located in Murcia: a hydraulic network of hundreds of kilometers that dates from the time of the Arabs in Spain (IX and X centuries AD).
They would remain "amigos para siempre".