Dissolving Boundaries

The Dissolving Boundaries project began in 1999. St Joseph’s, Secondary School has been involved in the project since 2004. The project uses Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and face-to-face meetings to link pupils and teachers in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The partnered schools work together during the year on a joint project, the aims of which are

•    Cultural – the development of cross border links that promote cultural awareness

•    Educational – promoting valuable collaborative learning experience for pupils

•    Technological – integrating ICT into the curriculum in a meaningful way

Our school has been linked with St. Coleman’s College – a boys’ grammar school in Newry for the last number of years. Ms Franklin and Ms Mc Elligott are the teachers involved in running the project at present. The curricular area used is Geography. Over the years the students have studied a wide range of topics including Fair Trade, which has allowed the students to develop a much deeper understanding of areas related to their everyday lives.

The students involved in the project make extensive use of the school’s computer facilities and video-conferencing capabilities. Over the years technological advances has seen the mediums of contact change greatly. Students now contact each other via moodle forums and wikis, which add substantially to their ICT skills.

A key element of the Dissolving Boundaries Project is the face -to- face meeting between the schools, which happen over the course of the school year. An event is organised that facilitates the integration of students with each other. In 2009, the two schools met at The Carlingford Adventure Centre, which runs outdoor activities such as sailing, kayaking, raft building, abseiling, high ropes and orienteering.

Over the years, many interesting joint projects have been undertaken by St Joseph’s and St Colman’s. Below is just a flavour of the work undertaken.

 Our first project was called “From Granite to Grey Wackies”. We studied rocks in Northern and Southern Ireland.  Students presented their results on a PowerPoint presentation.

The following year, our project was called “Our Just Desserts”.  We studied deserts throughout the world, how they are growing and how this can be stopped.

Next we engaged in a project called “From Wild Geese to Homing Pigeons” and here we did a comparative study of emigration from Northern and Southern Ireland. Students had to survey their own families and friends to find out the reasons why people they knew emigrated.

Our next endeavour was a study of “Fair Trade”. Students in the North and South had to survey their local shops to ascertain how many Fair Trade products were being sold in their respective shops. They also had to come up with a new Fair Trade logo.

This year “Deadly Disasters” is the name of our project. Our students will be researching volcanoes, earthquakes, Tsunamis etc and swapping information about these topics with St Colman’s. We also hope to video conference with our partner school and emailing will begin shortly

Each year our students have had a face to face meeting with our partner school in Newry. So far we have engaged in team building exercises in Carlingford, visited Croke Park and W5 (The Science Interactive Centre) in the Odyssey Arena Centre in Belfast. We will be planning a face to face meeting later in the year and are looking forward to working on our new project

P. Franklin and M McElligott
(Dissolving Boundaries Co-ordinators)