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Historical Re-enactment » Links » Camp d'Aprenentatge de la Ciutat de Tarragona

Camp d'Aprenentatge de la Ciutat de Tarragona


Web page:http://www.xtec.es/cda-tarragona/

CACT (Learning Camp in Tarragona) is an educational service within the Catalan Government Department of Education which organizes one-day trips through the city or several-day courses in Tarragona and its surroundings for students aged 6 to 18. It also runs courses addressed to university lecturers and teachers who wish to gain experience in new teaching methodologies.

 

CACT offers educational centers and institutions numerous didactic materials which will help students discover and enhance their knowledge of the city of Tarragona, from the Ibero-Roman period until present day. By means of interdisciplinary activities, students will gain an appraisal of the elements that have configured and shaped Tarragona as it is today.

 

CACT counts with 25-years educational experience and covers different subjects through experimental learning. Workshops are designed so that students physically touch tools and equipment. They observe, analyse and try out the way everyday objects worked in the past and can compare them with their current counterparts. By doing so, they become more aware of their evolution over the years. By living and experiencing their ancestors' lives students practice vivential learning: the basis of significant learning.

 

CACT has a monographic devoted to Roman Tarraco intended to draw students closer to Tarragona 2.000 years ago. A range of materials is available for children to manipulate and experiment with, so as to help them understand the way daily life was in a Roman city. Thus, workshops are complemented with fieldwork visits to different monuments (the Aqueduct, the Amphitheater, the Walls, the Circus, the Praetorium, the Necropolis, the Tower of the Escipions, the Munts Roman Villa, etc) in order for students to develop critical analysis and build up knowledge through direct observation.

 

In addition, CACT also owns a great deal of historical reenactment equipment that allows a better understanding of particular aspects of daily life in the Roman period:

 

  • A recreation room, where a street and a Roman "domus" are portrayed including shops, a tavern, a triclinium or dinning room, a kitchen and a latrine, respectively.
  • An interpretation room, where a Roman camp is shown containing three legionary tents, weapons, a wardrobe, tools and the traditional uniform of the Roman army.
  • More than 200 dresses of the Roman period, which correspond to and identify several social groups, sexes, ages and seasons.
  • A recreation of a roman doctor's workshop, with all his instruments, potions and products.
  • A workshop on Roman cooking, with replicas of dishes, storage systems and cooking utensils.
  • A workshop on aesthetics where lotions and perfumes employed by hairdressers, products for personal hygiene, cosmetics and perfumery are displayed.
  • A set of 41 scale models representing the city of Tarraco, nearby buildings and a selection of important buildings in Catalonia.
  • A workshop on archeology showing the reconstruction of an archeology site (covering an area of 54 m2) with ceramics and museum items and also a mimic of the way these were manufactured by ancient Romans.
  • A workshop about the life of a Roman boy with replicas of items children used from birth to school age. In this workshop scholars can attempt to become writers practicing with ancient writing systems.
  • 5 collections of 150 ancient games. These can be borrowed by educational centers.
  • A workshop of Roman architecture replaying tools, instruments and the process of building an arch and a turn, frameworks, etc.

 

Another important module focuses on the Middle Ages, where emphasis is given to the study of the Cathedral, the construction of altarpieces, the making of stained glass windows and writing. Scholars learn, for example, to design graphic signs using a feather and writing on treated rabbit leather. They also learn to paint using grisaille on glass, to join it with lead and to make their own stained glass window.