The winning educational centre of the MARQ educational project for the 2024-25 school year was 1st ESO of IES Jaume II of Alicante. Their winning proposal highlights the value of the La Illeta archaeological sitewith a final model aimed at the units and learning situations that make up the part dedicated to History in the 1st year of ESO.
The teachers who have led the project are Manuel Blanco González-Llanos, Isabel Jarque Cabañas and Rogelio González Gosálbez and the task consisted of producing an information leaflet on the site of La Illeta, which could also be adapted to Lucentum, with which the pupils worked on compiling and structuring a wide range of information; using specific vocabulary linked to the world of archaeology; reviewing aspects of life in Prehistory, in the Iberian settlements and in the Roman villas and making understandable the determining relationship that exists between the geographical space or specific habitat, the acquisition of resources for life and the development of these population centres.
In this edition, which covers the 2024-25 academic year, 775 primary and secondary students from schools in the province of Alicante took part.
The jury valued the creativity of the IES Jaume II project, considering that "it is a very attractive project for the pupils, with a complete activity that deals with the knowledge of the course and the subject, encourages the development of written expression, the use of images, the understanding of the "dialogue" that always exists between historical evolution and other elements - from the Alicante coastal relief to the importance of tourism today -, the recognition and enhancement of our archaeological heritage with the commitment to its future safeguarding".
The teachers and their students made visits to the site itself on 28 March, 3 and 10 April, with the participation of the 150 students of IES Jaime II, in the 1st year of ESO, which resulted in these works, in the form of information leaflets, the ultimate objective of the Programme, thus favouring the experiential approach of the subject of History to the heritage reality that is closest to them.
In addition, and in the opinion of the jury, "we would also like to highlight the work of 1st year of ESO A at IES Luis García Berlanga Secondary School in Sant Joan d'Alacantwhich has been finalist with its Project "The temples of the Roman Empire".. A proposal that combines archaeological research and 3D modelling, which allows students to learn in detail about the temples of the Roman Empire". The students, guided by their teacher, used classical sources to illustrate not only the architecture of the temples, but also their social, religious and political function in the historical context of the Roman Empire.
From the Didactics Unit of the CV MARQ Foundation stress the importance of initiatives such as this one, which show that history can be at once lively, exciting and deeply formative.
