Hosted by OSOS , contributed by DeustoLearningLab on 7 February 2018
How can we turn an abandoned space into the heart of a cultural initiative?
This is the starting point of the "Bottled Stories" project, which was built in response to a TMP Challenge of Valnalón (https://retotmp.wordpress.com/), in which an entrepreneur, Beatriz Rodríguez Álvarez, proposed to the students of the Beauty Program of IES El Batán (Mieres, Asturias, Spain) to find a space without utility to give it a new usage. The project is coordinated by Paz Fernández de Vera (pazfdevera@hotmail.com), teacher of Business and Entrepreneurship at the centre.
Students decided to rehabilitate a tunnel located close to the institute, and use it as a place for a cultural initiative they developed: "Bottled Stories", which aims to encourage people to write and introduce stories into a bottle rack inside the tunnel so that they can be read and shared on the project's website and social networks. The challenge was very big: 21 meters long, 2.40 meters width, just one month for its execution in the classes and with an initial budget of... zero euros. Finally, it was achieved and the students keep working on the project outside school time.
The initiative has received a lot of media coverage (see the newspaper 'La Nueva España') and has been shared by different groups and people from Mieres, who have joined the proposal. On May 31st, a meeting of all these collectives took place in the Public Library of the village, where several stories were read. The Creative Writing Club of the Library of Mieres, Tino de Cima (a neighbor who has written several poems engraved in the tunnel), the English Conversation Club, students of our center and members of the youth association “El Camín” (intellectually disabled people, who continue to go every Wednesday to the tunnel) and different mentors, are still involved.
The project is being implemented on the academic year 2017-2018 by students of the Hairdressing Program, who will carry out a service-learning project with elderly people that will be connected with the tunnel and with the “Bottled Stories” project. Its name is "Bottled Stories 2.0" and is presented in this video:
You can find more information and resources at https://esteticaybellezame.wixsite.com/retobatan
Organization and people in charge:
Learning objectives
- creativity
- communication
- active listening
- empathy
- teamwork
- decision making
- resource management skills
- emotional intelligence
RRI principles
One of the key aspects of OSOS is the inclusion of RRI — Responsible Research and Innovation — principles (more information at RRI-Tools.eu). This is how this Accelerator fits into the RRI model:
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Governance |
Students will establish a collaborative model with several stakeholders in their community, with which they can discuss different aspects of the project get feedback throughout all the stages . I.e.: several stakeholders, like local government (to know which abandoned places are available to improve, the local legislation, etc.) or culture associations (to develop a cultural initiative), scientist (so they show students how to apply the scientific method) will be involved in this project. |
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Public Engagement |
Students will be able to improve an abandoned place in their environment. To do so, they could ask public bodies to know how and where to develop the project. I.e.: several stakeholders, like local government (to know which abandoned places are available to improve, the local legislation, etc.) or culture associations (to develop a cultural initiative) will be involved in this project. |
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Gender equality |
The purpose of the new usage for the place will be established with a gender-neutral approach, this will benefit both men and women. I.e.: students will discuss different options and choose the most appropiate one in terms of gender equality. They can discuss and reflect on the different needs, if any, considering gender. |
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Science Education |
This activity could use sciencific concepts and procedures (i.e. measure distance and areas, create budget and analyse sustainability of the project, identify materials, estimate variables, etc.) and it should be developed following the scientific method (define a research qustion, collect data, analyse, validate or refute the hypothesis, etc.). I.e.: students will use science in a trans-disciplinary way, looking for answers through a scientific approach to know where, when, what and how they will develop the project in the surroundings of the school. |
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Ethics |
Students will improve or find a new use for a public space through a research approach, sharing responsibility with stakeholders during the whole process. People involved in this activity will also be able to reflect on their conclussions about the abandoned places in the locality. I.e.: this project aims at improving an abandoned place, finding a new usage for it which will benefit the society around the school and will allow neighbours to reflect on abandoned places, and how to make a better use of them. Students can reflect and discuss on the ethical issues related to public spaces, the research method followed during the project, social impact of the solutions imagined. |
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Open Access |
Students could share resources and materials with both stakeholders involved in the project and also in the Internet, open and free, for the users interested in the project. I.e.: materials developed and resources collected within this project will be available for free on the Internet, since they can help people in developing their own projects to improve other abandoned places. |
Resources needed
Required human resources
It is hard to create a list of human resources needed, because they will depend on the milieu and the associations/organizations involved. We have been in touch with people with intellectual disabilities, writing clubs, elder centers; these people helped us without asking anything in return.
Economic resources
- Create a book or a collectable with the result of the project, in paper format.
- Paint materials are necessary to clean the public space and to paint it again.
- Daily office materials (pen, paper, etc.)
- Computers and Internet to develop the digital materials (documents, maps, etc.)
Other suggestions
- Facebook: /historiasembotelladas/
- Twitter: @historiasbote
- Instagram: historiasembotelladas
Sentir
[1] Observe
(90 minutes)
People build things, and sometimes they abandon a place for several reasons. For this project we need to find an unused place near our school and develop anything to improve it.
We need to know some things that will serve us as the starting point:
- To know if there is any unused place around the school (Where it is? Who do it belongs to?)
- To know its history (Why is it currently abandoned? What are the reasons for this state?)
- To know its purpose (When it was built? By who? What for?)
- Everything you thing can be interesting to describe the place.
Please, work in groups of 3-4 people and try to answer this questions.
[2] Share and vote
(15 minutes)
Now, you will need to share your findings with the rest of the classroom. Please, name a spokesman/spokeswoman, who will present your findings in no more than 1 minute.
Important: listen carefully to all groups because we will vote all places, and the best for us will be the one we will work on for the next weeks/months.
[3] Dig deeper
(20 minutes)
Now, we have only one unused place, and we need to focus on it.
All teams (can be the same than before, or new ones) need to keep working on this spot, and we will try to get more information about it.
For instance:
- Are there any other unused places that have been renovated, that are similar to our one?
- Are there any other unused places that have been renovated, in our city?
Of course, feel free to develop your own questions.
(10 minutes)
Share your findings with your classmates.
[4] Engage
(2 hours)
It's time to engage your parents, neighbours and, in general, all the people in the surroundings of our abandoned place. We encourage you to move there and ask to the people questions about the place, like for example:
- Do you know the unused place?
- Have you ever used it? (now or in the past)
- How do you think we can improve this place to have a new use of it?
- etc.
Please, take note of their answers and share them with your classmates. Select the most appropiate ones for this project.
Imaginar
[1] Brainstorming Tools
[2] Vote
- Choose a group spokesman/spokeswoman, who will be responsible for sharing your findings with the rest of the class.
- Each group must take notes from all proposals.
- Once all groups have shared their findings, you need to vote the 3 best proposals.
Criar
[1] Plan
Right now we have three proposals, chosen by voting with all students votes. We need to focus on the first of them, the one that has “win”. All of you need to elaborate a formal project.- What are we going to develop to improve the abandoned place? Please, describe it with 100-200 words.
- Do we need money? How many? How many we have? How will we get the money?
- Do we need people to work on our project? How many people, and with which profiles?
- For how long will we work on the place?
- How are we going to document the work?
- (add new questions if you consider)
[2] Implement
[3] Reflect
- What 3 things did you learn about the situation?
- What 2 things did you learn about your team-mates?
- What 1 thing did you learn about yourself?
(30 minutes)
- What things have gone worse than expected? Why?
- How can we improve these things in a future project?
- Is there anything we couldn’t afford/achieve?
- How can we improve the result of our project?
Partilhar
[1] Share your stories
Maybe you aren’t aware, but we have done a WONDERFUL work for our community. Now, we need to spread the word.Internet webpages/blogs and socialmedia networks
Within the School communities (ask your teacher/school head for more information)
… what else?
(45 minutes)
Elaborate the previous task and spread the word!
[2] Inspire
- What have we done? Why is this an interesting project?
- How did we do that? You can use a timeline to present this information
- Whom did we work with? Remember all the stakeholders involved in the project!
- Which are the results of the project?
- … anything else?