Students from Stevenson, Henry Ford Ford II, and Utica High schools accompanied teacher Sabine Spezia on a non-UCS sanctioned trip to Germany and Austria for ten days in July to explore Berlin, Munich, Salzburg, and Vienna.
"The students returned with many great memories and increased confidence from all they were able to do while in Germany and Austria," Spezia said.
In addition to practicing their language skills in authentic settings, the students’ learning encompassed several other subjects.
They used math skills when converting Euros to US dollars and Celsius to Fahrenheit. Students worked with the metric system when determining how many grams of red cherries to buy at the open-air marketplace and while reading a recipe in their cooking class.
Map-reading and problem-solving skills were used during their scavenger hunt in central Vienna.
In each city the students were able to interact with history, whether touching sections of the Berlin wall or walking the old section of Salzburg.
"There is a sense of awe when you get to walk in a building that was built in the 1200s," Spezia said.
Students interacted with music history when visiting the birth place of Mozart and the palace that Richard Wagner frequented when visiting Ludwig II, then King of Bavaria. Their musical experiences extended to an evening of traditional Bavarian music while they learned a few Bavarian folk dances.
Lessons were given on how to distinguish between older Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo architectural styles and then compare them to the more contemporary styles of the (then) East Berlin “Plattenbauten” and the colorful and playful style of the artist Hundertwasser in Vienna.
The students tasted the regional foods and learned how to ride the U-Bahn (subway) in Berlin and Munich. The landscapes they were exposed to ranged from flat area in northern Germany to the Alps.
Taking part in the trip were Emily Pluhatsch, Dana Wyckoff, Danielle Marwede, Jonathan Grant, Dennis Marwede, Brian Quinn, Becky Sekich and Blake Maciolek.
