Dutch national winner of the European Charlemagne Youth Prize 2012
14 May 2012
The Charlemagne Youth prize has been won by students from the School of the Arts and Utrecht University. They developed together the project Aelius and the Time Portal. The purpose of this prize, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament, is the development of European awareness among young people and encourage their participation in projects to promote integration.
What is the Time Portal?
Aelius and the Time Portal is an interactive history lesson for children of group 5 and 6 of primary school and close to the history lessons that are given at school. The children travel during this lesson through what is called a time portal to the Roman era in their own district, Kanaleneiland in Utrecht. Based on the story of a Roman slave, the students learn in an interactive way the Limes. This is the old Roman border, inter alia by the Netherlands and walked through Kanaleneiland making a connection between the Netherlands, Turkey and Morocco. Because many residents of Kanaleneiland originally come from Morocco, it is very special for these children to see that this connection already existed at these early times.
Original and accessible
The jury chose this project because the target and the original approach: "the LIMES project is not only the challenge of double integration in both the Netherlands and the European Union, but also focuses on youth in the society that not every day come into contact with Europe and its importance. A project that in an original and accessible way enhances the EU involvement with full enthusiasm. The deserved winner, "says Esther de Lange, Christian Democrat MEP and member of the Charlemagne-prize.
PORTICO
The development of Aelius and the Time Portal was part of the international cooperation PORTICO. Student teams from the various participating cities (Utrecht, Ghent, Chester and Cologne) were ordered to work out innovative business cases for promotion and exploitation of archaeological heritage in their city. PORTICO is supported with a financial contribution from the European subsidy program for Interreg IVB North West Europe.
Charlemagne-prize
The Charlemagne-prize has a national jury who chooses from any country of the European Union a winner. Here, a European jury will then choose the three best projects. The representatives of the 27 national winning projects will be invited for an overnight trip to Aachen, where the ceremony will take place by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Charlemagne-prize of Aachen.
Source: European Parliament The Hague
More information:
http://limes.hku.nl