Preface

Preface

This comic was made for educational purposes and has been executed in cooperation between the municipality of Rautjärvi (Finland), Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland) and the University of Tartu (Estonia) during the years 2015 and 2016. The original idea of educational material about war history was created in Rautjärvi in 2014 when drama tours connected to war history were launched in the area for travellers and other people interested in the topic. During these tours, we noticed that the young people that took part in the tours were especially interested in matters concerning the Second World War. We carried out a questionnaire for the adolescent and found out that, for them, experiencing things themselves was an impressive and interesting way to learn. Because of this discovery, we decided to start developing new kind of educational material which is based on the learner experiencing things connected to the subject. The Second World War was chosen as the theme and children and adolescent were chosen as the point of view.

It was especially important to us that the educational material would be historically accurate, and it would reflect the viewpoint of the people who experienced the Second World War when they were children or adolescent. For this purpose we partnered with the above-mentioned universities which executed the survey in Finland and in Estonia. The target group consisted of people who were 6 to 18 years old in the beginning of the Second World War. The data of the survey and the war experiences of the children and adolescent formed the base for the educational material.

The last stage was to develop three tools based on experiential learning: the comic, the roleplay and the drama tour. The comic includes those people’s points of view, experiences and stories of the war who took part in the survey, and it has been connected to historically accurate information. The aim of the comic is to tell stories about war from the point of view of the children and the adolescent. It was also especially important to us to bring forth the humane side of the war. The roleplay is designed for the school environment, and it allows the children and the adolescent to learn about the Second World War through experiencing events themselves.

The third tool is the drama tours where experiential learning culminates to interesting stories which are acted and scripted. During the tours, the pupils can take part on the events and experience historical moments in an authentic environment.

The comic and the roleplay are translated into several languages and are distributed for free to anyone who is interested in them. Our aim is to provide an innovative and alternative way of teaching and a method of creating similar material in the future. All the educational tools have been created in a way that they describe war history as objectively as possible and that children and adolescent are able to understand everything. Hopefully you will have memorable moments with the material!

Juha-Pekka Natunen Rautjärven kunta Project manager