If the musical group The Union put Sildavia on the pop map of the 80s, almost four decades later, a school in the south of Tenerife flies the flag of this fictitious country to promote, with great success among the educational community of the center, an innovative educational project aimed at to favor the learning of concepts and to foster the skills of schoolchildren.
Students, teachers, fathers and mothers of the Aponte Early Childhood and Primary Education Center, in Guía de Isora, have conspired to unify the Kingdom of Sildavia, a nation that for centuries was made up of eight islands that ended up becoming independent after the death of the eight kings who led each of the territories. When the unity of the archipelago was blown up, each island implanted its own rules, traditions and even chose the new identity of its people.
But now a threat lurks: Emperor Palmatine wants to take advantage of the disunity and conquer the eight autonomous territories. There is only one way to prevent it: that the eight islands unite again and merge into a single kingdom to defend itself and defeat the invader.
To achieve this, students, from the age of three to those in sixth grade, must solve challenges, carry out missions and participate in activities that allow them to earn points and coins in order to advance in the objective of unifying the kingdoms and stop the conquest of the enemy. The difficulty of the challenges increases as goals are achieved and the reunification will be consummated when the tests passed allow the eight flags of the territories to be delivered to the Great Kingdom of Sildavia. At the moment, there are already two and in January they will go for the third island.
The idea of reconquering Sildavia came to the head of the school, Yolanda Acevedo, who explained to DIARIO DE AVISOS the benefits of this surprising teaching formula, among which she highlighted a greater motivation among schoolchildren for learning. “Boys and girls love to play and any activity that they find fun increases their interest and desire to learn, which makes it easier for them to assimilate a lot of knowledge,” she said.
Sildavia will be present in all subjects
The project extends to all the subjects, although the students do not know what they are going to find every day and what they will have to solve. This mystery, highlights the director of CEIP Aponte, increases their motivation and, therefore, their attention: “They feel that they are capable of understanding the concepts and that encourages them to continue advancing in the game.”
Other advantages of this innovative educational formula is that it encourages the use of new technologies and stimulates students’ social relations, since it forces them to communicate and work together. In addition, it improves the use of logic and strategy to solve problems, from a mathematical puzzle to an scape room, a physical and mental game that consists of solving enigmas while the group remains isolated. Other times it’s time to look for hidden dragons or find colored stones.
Teachers and students even dress up to represent the inhabitants of each of the territories, as in the kingdom of Aramoor, the first to deliver the flag, where Vikings and dragons coexist in peace. Then the kingdom of Legolín did it, but the road is long and they await the unification of five other islands where beings of energy, heroes, master minds and even marine species inhabit.
One of the most outstanding aspects of the project is the involvement of families. In fact, a game consists of parents entering the school with their children to help them pass some tests. “In this way, they talk about the project at home, they ask the children if they have met the challenges that day and help them solve some situations, families play a very important role.”
The creator of Sildavia has had the “fantastic and professional” collaboration of the faculty and the support of the head of studies, Verónica Rodríguez, as well as the school secretary, Noelia Rivas. Yolanda Acevedo reveals that, since the project was launched at the beginning of the school year, students obtain better grades in performance tests compared to the learning style based on memorization.
These are the advantages of the reunification process of the Great Kingdom of Sildavia, where, as the song said, there are no deserts or false passion and time passes so slowly…
