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Children-Architects to Create Homes
Start date: Sep 1, 2014, End date: Aug 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

It is important for children to understand, early in life, the significance of how and why architecture and design and also cultural heritage are created and the history behind these institutions. It is also extremely crucial for children to become acquainted with, and be able to appreciate the substance and qualities of these art forms. Our educational system is based on factual knowledge and logical thinking. We test them to check whether they achieve the set goals. We mark them according to their mistakes. We standardize them as much as we can. The less highly rated subjects are the creative subjects, those for which marks are not necessarily given, which do not necessarily have any other purpose than to show the children that in their free time they might be able to do something with music or art. Below them come the more peripheral subjects such as design, drama and the like. It occurs as the lower priority on the development of the children’s creative potential. They have to be trained in logical thinking, but not in creative thinking. We need to ensure that all of our children’s talents and creative gifts are developed in exactly the same way as their academic skills. According to UNESCO, by 2020 there will be more people graduating through education than before. Knowledge will be something to which everyone will have access. We need to stimulate creative thought at school level if we want to be a qualified society which dares to think creatively, differently, off-the-wall and against the stream. It’s possible to instill these dimensions in children through play, on their terms, in their world. The experiences they have as children at school eventually evolve into a kind of responsibility. Whether you are an architect, a designer, a town-planner, company director, politician or president, it matters that you have absorbed such experiences. And that experience starts back in the art classes. This education will constitute a meaningful part of the students’ other subjects giving students a better chance of gaining insight into and knowledge of all subjects, being the classic artistic disciplines or other areas of study, in which students can sample and remix form and meaning from different fields of knowledge and periods in our common culture and history. Teachers will be able to exchange the knowledge and experience which will turn the schools into an alternative learning environment for students and they will have the chance to express their opinions, ideas and observations in visual and material form. With the cooperation in the international level, all involved learners, staff members and the community will build a strong European identity achieving by actions and activities carrying out in all participating countries. This partnership consists of 6 schools from Greece, Poland, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Turkey. All the partners are willing and determined, they have a motivation to participate in the project, compatible organizational missions, self confidence and a good history about the social inclusion, capacity of qualified and voluntary staff to involve in the project, support and participation of the school administration, enough knowledge about their community, quality of cultural competence, collaboration capability, technical capacity and skills to contribute to the overall project. Project CATCH consists of 16 activities was prepared under the guidance and technical support of the academicians Assoc. Prof Dr. M. Tolga Akbulut, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aynur Çiftçi, Assist. Prof. Dr. Dilek Ekşi Akbulut from Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Architecture. The 8 of the activities will be implemented with the 5th graders in the fist project year and 8 of the activities will be implemented in the second project year with the very same pupils in 6th grade. Duration of every activity is set to two lessons in a month. Every activity was prepared with detailed explanations of The Duration of The Activity, Objectives, Materials, Learning Activity Method, Pre-Preparation of the Activity and Evaluation-Teacher's Opinion parts. In this implementation process all the partners will use their own culture and cultural heritage adhering to the main framework. All project partners who were chosen based on their proximity to a Faculty of Architecture will be able to be supervised by the experts. In the meantime, the faculties will be in communication with each other. The impact of the project CATCH can be explained with the word of Pihla Meskanen, the director of ARKKI (www.arkki.nu),: '' Lessons in architecture give children new opportunities, methods and tools for influencing the way in which building environment of the future will be shaped. They open new windows and doors onto a world of possibilities, onto the prospect of an as yet unknown future.''
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