connecting classrooms Dosrius

Connecting classrooms

Secció d’institut Dosrius is a small high school. It is located in Dosrius a privileged village, 30

kilometres away from Barcelona, within the limits of The Montnegre and The Corredor Park1 in

the Catalan Coastal Mountain System, between the regions of El Maresme and El Vallès

Oriental, and covers an approximate area of 15,000 hectares. The park is set in the Serralada

de Marina, a mountain range that limits the green ring of natural parks around the Barcelona

conurbation in the Northeast. The Montnegre and The Corredor Park is legally safeguarded by

a Special Physical Environment and Landscape Protection Plan that was approved on 20 July

1989.

The original name of Dosrius, first recorded in 963, is "Duos Rios". This literally means "Two

Rivers" and refers to the 2 rivers that join to form the Argentona Riera, and is reflected in the

coat of arms. Dosrius village2 itself has a predominantly permanent population, as does the

neighbouring village of Canyamars (a smaller village that falls within the municipality), and Can

Massuet. The population is about 5,000 inhabitants and in the last years it has increased

considerably, owing to the migrations from the nearby cities.

Although Secció d’Institut Dosrius is situated in a very beautiful environment, the centre is

settled in a provisional site, composed by different portal cabins where the students attend

classes and work in the computer lab and other spaces. A situation that one day will end with

the construction of the so yearned definite building.

Our community is composed by 142 students (from 12 to 16 years old) distributed in two

groups of first of ESO, two groups of second of ESO, two groups of third of ESO and one group

of fourth of ESO. There is a special group, with a reduced number of special education needs

students, called “ Opened Classroom.” In our centre we only provide secondary compulsory

education (ESO). Therefore, when our students finish fourth of ESO, they have to move to

nearby centres where they can continue studying. The centre has twenty two teachers

involved in different projects and initiatives to engage students’ participation.

One of the ways we attend diversity in our centre is through the Research Project, which

allows students to help each other working cooperatively to get a benefit for all. Weak

students obtain the help of their partners to face the emerging problems during the search,

under the supervision and help of a tutor.

The curriculum of the fourth of ESO compels students to do a Research Project on an

interesting topic, which has to be defended in a board of examiners at the end of the course.

We studied the way to attend diversity in The Research Project in order to obtain the best

1 http://www.diba.es/parcsn/parcs/plana.asp?parc=5&m=199&o=2

2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosrius

quality in our students’ production. Therefore, we invest one hour a week in the students’

timetable under the surveillance and guiding of three teachers.

The first sessions are dedicated to explain deeply what a research project is and the steps the

students have to follow before starting to work in groups.

The teachers give hints and recommend the criteria to select suitable partners and ask the

students to take their time before choosing, which is very important for a final success in

completing the tasks of the project. In this way groups tend to be more balanced: within a

group there are students with different level of knowledge and autonomy.

External collaborators involved in research in secondary education come to the centre to offer

the students another view on the matter. Our objective is to encourage students in the world

of research as an open possibility which does not end in the compulsory secondary education.

At the beginning of the course a talk is organised with the participation of an expert teacher

and some university students to show the availability of doing a successful research project

which can be taken to compete in any contest.

Examples of research projects from previous years are shown to the students. After examining

some of the projects, the students’ first comments focus on the difficulties to do a similar

project, or to choose an interesting topic to start with, and so on... In many cases, students do

not consider themselves able to carry out a project and end it successfully.

Last course, we sent some of our final research projects to some important contests. Three of

the projects presented were pre-selected to participate in the” Exporecerca Jove XI,” a contest

for young researchers open to European countries and organised by The Ramón Llull University

of Barcelona3. One of the projects won the award of the public and another was chosen to

open the contest. The same project has won the second prize in the EIDEA contest4. A local

newspaper published a short article about our young researchers and their participation in the

Exporecerca Jove.

We are very proud of our students and full of joy to see that their efforts are rewarded and

we, as teachers, have contributed in their education.

3 http://www.magmarecerca.org/

4 http://www.escolessas.com/laie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=39