Project Day on Democracy, Media and Values

Democracy, Media and Values Project Day at BS11

On October 1, 2024, BS11 held a project day on democracy, media, and values with students from the vocational gymnasium, as well as the IVK and AVM classes. The goal of this day was to engage with these three core themes, with all students participating in multiple workshops covering different topics, each related to democracy from various perspectives.

Teachers from our school conducted workshops on topics including democracy in everyday school life, threats to and protection of democracy, dealing with diverse values in society, handling political symbols, the historical development of democracy, and raising awareness of how media and social networks influence opinion. Two of the workshops on the threats to and protection of democracy were additionally led by Werner Fredebold, founder and publisher of the news app “MEGAfoN,” and Annette Großbongardt, deputy editor of SPIEGEL’s Germany department. Several workshops were also conducted by external providers. These included “Understanding Democracy and Elections” by Haus Rissen, “Discovering Human Rights through Play” by making space for peace, and “Perception in Everyday Life, School, and Work” by LifeKinetik.

Through the cross-class and cross-department composition of the workshops, students exchanged views on the topics well beyond their usual learning groups. We were delighted that the students recognized the value of this format in the final reflection session of the project day, with many expressing that the exploration of different aspects of these highly relevant core themes was very beneficial.

We would like to thank all the teachers and external contributors for making this project day possible for the students through a wide range of engaging workshops and the final reflection session.

The Preparation Team

David Gatzen, Sandra Hollm, Inga Marzban-Gemein, Teresa Winter