How do students get to Rivers International School in Arnhem? How much travel time is considered acceptable? How did their parents, usually expats working in Arnhem, Nijmegen or Wageningen, decide where to live?

These and other questions are central to the mobility study conducted by project manager Rob Soeters for the Province of Gelderland and the municipalities of Nijmegen and Wageningen. In these cities many expats work for international companies. Their children often go to Rivers International School in Arnhem for IB approved education. Rivers, the province and the municipalities find it important that this international education is accessible to all these students. To further improve the accessiblity of the school they have ordered a mobility study. Rivers students themselves assist in collecting some necessary data.

Interdisciplinary Unit: combining subject areas

On Friday the 14th of June Rob Soeters presented his questions at Rivers to the students as a kick-off for their Interdisciplinary Unit: a one-week unit of study that combines the perspectives of two different subject areas, in this case Individuals & Societies and Mathematics. Students learn that in order to understand or solve issues, transfer of skills and knowledge and understanding from different disciplines are required.

The goal of this week is to teach students how to collect data through questionnaires and interviews, how to process and analyze this data and how to present the outcome. They will question one of the most important stakeholders, namely their parents. Working together with Rob Soeters provides the students the opportunity to take part in and contribute to a “real life issue”. Their contributions will be used to determine future policy for the mobility to and from Rivers International School at a provincial level.

The results of the mobility study as a whole are expected at the end of August.