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These visits were part of a project called Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Learning Environment Design project (MultiLED) funded by the Team Finland Knowledge program (TFK). The visits were coordinated together with project partners Dr. Tiina Mäkelä from JYU and Dr. Paula Cardellino from ORT University in Uruguay.

The MultiLED project aims to respond to educational needs by facilitating a multidisciplinary and international perspective on learning environment design. It does so through the staff mobility and joint teaching activities involving the development of hybrid seminars and open online course materials. The project combines architecture and pedagogical science.

The project partners are:

• Aalto University, Department of Architecture
• Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, the Finnish Institute for Educational Research
• ORT University, Faculty of Architecture

We also received help from another project, as when Matias and Paula were visiting schools in Montevideo, Uruguay, Dr. Kristof Fenyvesi and project researcher Orsolya Tuba from our ILE team were taking part in the activities of the FinnUruSteam project mobility week, which allowed us to also create content from school visits done through that project. A big thanks to the FinnUruSteam project for making this collaboration possible! Read more about the FinnUruSteam project mobility week here.

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THE CHRISTIAN'S KIDS PRESCHOOL in CARRASCO NORTE, MONTEVIDEO

On 19th February, Paula and Matias visited the Christian Kids private preschool run by the Christian Brothers of Ireland. The school is located in the residential neighborhood of Carrasco Norte, Montevideo, Uruguay.

The preschool was first opened in 2020. It's about to be transformational in terms of education, and it has been designed following that idea. The preschool is meant for 2-5-olds, after which the children move to an adjacent building for primary and secondary education.

The school premises feature a plant garden, a playground area, taps for drinking and washing hands, and an area which will be a future theatre.

The indoors spaces have been created with space in mind, being very spacious and offering various arts and crafts equipment for children to play with.

The rooms are mostly separated by windowed walls, which creates the sense of space and brings lots of light to each room in the building.

There are many innovatively shaped tables, some of which can be joined together to create bigger table groups!

A centerpiece of the building is a climbable bending artpiece with various shelves and windows for the children to interact with and spend time in.

The main staircase upstairs includes numbers to help children learn calculation.

The building includes many wooden elements, some plants indoors, and the floors and walls are creatively used for opportunities for play. Ceiling windows bring in a lot of light.

The school gym space is equipped with climbable ladders to hang from and stretching, gymnastic balls, mirrors for dancing classes, as well as different kinds of blocks and paddings to be innovative with.

There are waste separation bins around the building for recycling.

A windowed wash basin area in the toilets allows for the teachers to supervise the activities of the children.

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LICEO 96 in CASAVALLE, MONTEVIDEO

Public schools are free in Uruguay, funded by the government, and most private schools operate via an enrolment fee paid by the childrens' parents. Private schools often have all the school grades in the same, while public schools more often have students switch school premises between educational levels.

On 20th February, Paula and Matias visited a new secondary school Liceo 69 de Casavalle, and were lucky enough to visit the school with the original architects who designed the school!

This is a new secondary school in Casavalle that was still being finished at the time of the visit.

The building was mainly made out of concrete and the inner yard was very hot during the day of filming, but the school will have many trees within the yard, and the entire roof of the school will be filled with plants!

The classroom area features labs with worktables, demonstrative equipment and biology specimen.

Classrooms feature sliding doors which have whiteboard surfaces on them for drawing and writing. The classrooms have openable door-like windows with meshes for safety.

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FRAY BENTOS

At the same time, our colleagues Orsi Tuba and Kristof Fenyvesi were in the city of Fray Bentos visiting the Liceo 3 of Fray Bentos, which is a free public high school, where they gained insight into the workings of a free public secondary education institution in the area.

The center also participates in educational projects with a STEAM focus financed by UPM. The educators at Liceo 3 graciously welcomed us and led us on a tour of the campus and its adjacent garden. We were pleased to confirm the availability of free and reliable broadband Wi-Fi provided by Ceibal, which worked seamlessly. Despite the building's age, the personal touches, including artworks contributed by students, teachers, and parents, created a strong sense of community.

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ESCUELA RURAL No.294 in JAUREGUIBERRY

A road trip to the Canelones Department north of Montevideo lead us to the innovative sustainable rural school No.294 in Jaureguiberry, which is a public school. The school is completely autosufficient in heating, drinking water, and electricity, and has been built utilising mostly recycled materials.

The school uses solar panels with batteries that power the entire complex, rainwater-harvesting roofs which provide all water, heating vents and air conditioning systems that operate without the need for machinery, and a school garden where students grow their own crops as part of the curriculum!

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THE CRANDON INSTITUTE

Finally, on Friday, accompanied by our FinnUruSteam colleagues, we visited the Crandon Institute, a private bilingual education institution spanning early childhood education through secondary education. We admired the campus and learned about the institution’s mission and values.

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A huge thanks for everyone who made this project possible!

The MultiLED Uruguay project is funded by the Team Finland Knowledge program (TFK), which aims to create and strengthen collaborations between Finnish higher education institutions and regions and countries selected within the TFK framework to design new operating models for cooperation. The programme funds educational cooperation between higher education institutes through cooperation and mobility projects, and it is funded by the Finnish National Agency for Education.