3 April 2023 – A press conference on the project Heritage school for new generations was held in the wedding hall of the Municipality of Škofja Loka. The partners of the project presented individual activities, including very interesting neurological testing of children, which is currently taking place at the Ivan Grohar Elementary School in Škofja Loka.
The mayor of Škofja Loka Municipality, Tine Radinja, highlighted the effort that Škofja Loka Municipality invests in both the renovation of buildings and the promotion of cultural heritage. The project Heritage school for new generations is funded by Norway Grants within the Education, Scholarships, Apprenticeship and Youth Entrepreneurship programme and is worth almost half a million euros. Part of the funds, in the amount of €80,000, is intended for the new installations and renovation of the »Rotovž« a Renaissance building in the Town Square in Škofja Loka. The premises, which have been empty and without purpose for more than 10 years, will acquire new content and purpose in addition to the renovation.
The representative of the project promoter, Mateja Hafner Dolenc from the Association of Historic Towns of Slovenia, presented basic information about the Heritage school for new generations. The purpose of the project is to establish an inter-institutional environment and learning practices for a more planned education of young people about cultural heritage and its renewal at the elementary school level. The project is aimed at the development of new teaching practices for the integration of cultural heritage into curricula and programs in primary schools. The project also transfers the good practices of the Norwegian learning system in cooperation with the Norwegian project partner Magma Geopark AS.
Representatives of the project partners presented their work, where the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia and the University of Primorska (Faculty of Humanities) are jointly developing a new innovative method of teaching cultural heritage content with interdisciplinary connections in primary schools. The new programme is being implemented and tested at the Ivan Grohar Elementary School in Škofja Loka. In addition, the school will acquire a permanent display corner for cultural heritage and didactic aids, such as a learning chest, which will be produced and planned in cooperation with the project partner Secondary School of Wood Engineering – School Center Škofja Loka.
Because on Monday, April 3th, and Tuesday, April 4th, 2023, at the Ivan Grohar Elementary School in Škofja Loka, a pilot implementation of new lessons together with neurological testing of children’s emotional and cognitive responses towards cultural heritage teaching took place, the Italian neuroscientist Andrea Bariselli from company Strobilo was able to answer the questions about testing.
He pointed out that through neuroscience we can obtain a large amount of data that can be used to improve, understand and predict human experiences and responses. Using an EEG (electroencephalogram) head device, the children were tested for their responses when the cultural heritage is introduced in the school lesson. The study will compare how the children respond during a ordinary school hour and an cultural heritage school hour.