Educational Visits
As part of our project, the students with the help of the Art teacher, Ms Romina Briffa in conjunction with Heritage Malta, will be observing the way in which the diverse decorative patterns in Maltese architecture have evolved through the span of time. Our main focus will be the Temple period, the Roman period, the Norman Period, the Baroque Period and 19th century tiles in Malta.
In view of this some of the students who attend the Erasmus+ club, during the mid-day break, were taken to Valletta, in particular to the Museum of Archaeology and to St. John's Co-cathedral to observe the various patterns on display. Another group of students were taken to another historical city, Mdina, during which they observed patterns at the Domus Romana and at Palazzo Falson.
The students' took notes and photos so that they will eventually develop educational matterial in the form of brochures or workbooks.
Students Working on the Brochures
While discussing and evaluating the visits to the above-mentioned historical sites, students came up with the idea of creating the brochures that would include own photographs and original digital designs. They expressed the wish of learning new programs and creating the brochures artwork themselves. We felt it was a very ambitious task and started looking up ideas of how to go about it.
For the actual work on the brochures, four groups of students were created. Each different groups had to think of an original creative process to present its work. As a team, they brainstormed together what they thought was relevant for each site, selected the photos that would eventually be used in the brochures, thought of any original digital artwork that could be done and decided on the best colour scheme.
At this point they started working on the brochure page by page. The students always kept in mind one priority, that of making the brochures student friendly and as interactive as possible. The brochures included several interactive activities in them such as: word search puzzles, complete the drawings and treasure hunts. All work was done through the use of Adobe InDesign and only the printing process was carried out outside the rooms of the classroom. No artwork preparation was required from the part of the printer but only the actual printing and binding of the brochures themselves.
The brochures were used during visits to the respective sites, where our students acted as guides to other students visiting the particular sites. This was learning by being present on site, it was learning through working as a team and more important, it was learning through having fun.
The Final Brochures
St John's
Co-Cathedral
Museum of
Archaeology
The Domus Romana
Palazzo
Falzon
The Whole Process
Guides for a Day
Students involved in the creation of these brochures, were then asked to act as leaders and guides during the Austrian's visit to Malta. The students rehearsed well the content and activities to be shared with their foreign friends. This served to increase the students’ entrepreneurial skills. This activity helped students overcome their difficulties in facing an audience and helped to prepare them for life after school. The following images show some Maltese students in action, and others enjoying the interactivity of the brochures.
