Study trip to the Kingdom of Norway

As part of the implementation of the Project "Improving infrastructure and improving STEM skills in primary schools of Vukovar-Srijem County", a trip of Norwegian partners to Croatia is planned, as well as a trip of Croatian partners to Norway. We informed you about the arrival of the Norwegian partners in Croatia in May, and below you can find out how the visit of the Croatian partners to the Kingdom of Norway went.

29.8.2023. in the early hours of the morning, a total of 23 employees of the school responsible for the project and partner schools left for Zagreb, from where they later flew to Norway.

After a pleasant flight, we stayed in a hotel in the town of Skien, where we got to know a lot of the values ​​and beauties that town has to offer over the course of 2 days. We visited the open-air museum called "Brekkeparken". The museum guides showed us and told us everything about the appearance and history of the houses from the 15th and 16th centuries. Also, we learned a lot about the way of building, but also about the way people lived in that time period.

The next day we visited the town of Porsgrunn, where we visited "Østre Porsgrunn kirke", a church that was set on fire and burned down in 2011, and a new one was built in its place.

On the same day, we got to know the city by walking and finally arrived at the "DuVerden" science center. There we listened to a lecture on how to program and function micro:bits. After listening to the lecture, we tried programming micro:bits ourselves through group work through the instructions and help of the lecturer. We programmed the robots started by micro:bits so that with the help of our commands on the controller, they could play "Robotball" and thus test the correctness of the programming of the micro:bits. After that we walked around the rest of the science center where we tried a lot of different games, puzzles and interactive exhibits. The science center has remained deeply etched in our memory as a completely new experience and a source of many new ideas that we can convey to children and thus build their STEM knowledge.

The next day we visited the school of Partner 9 "Mæla ungdomskole“. By visiting the school, they revealed to us how their everyday life and classes work. We have seen a lot of different practices both in the construction of the schools themselves and in the way of lectures and curriculum.

In the afternoon we left for Oslo, where we spend the next 2 days. In the morning of the next day, we visited "Oslo kommunale skolehager". We had the opportunity to see how the garden, which is the central garden for all schools that do not have one, is taken care of by the students and teachers of that time. Thanks to this project, gardens, greenhouses and greenhouses were trained in Croatian schools, and going to this common school garden was a perfect opportunity to collect examples that the teachers will implement in our school gardens after returning to Croatia.

After that, the leader, together with the project coordinators, held a meeting with Partners 8 and 9 in the Oslo City Hall. They discussed the joint activities so far and those that are yet to follow. They discussed the dissemination of project activities and information about learning outcomes, the development of online STEM educational tools, the development of educational materials as products of project activities, the evaluation of project outcomes, the use of materials that will be digitized into interactive online tools and distributed to the general public and schools across Croatia through online platform. We agreed on how communication will be continued to facilitate the realization of the project, as well as on the finances that remain available after the previous expenses.

After the meeting, the cheerful and hospitable hosts took us for a ride in a sailboat where we experienced all the charms of the Oslo fjords. In our free time, we explored the beauty and sights of the city on our own. In the early morning hours of September 2, we headed back to the airport from where we flew back to Zagreb.

The aim of the study trip was to exchange the experiences of teachers and other educational workers and other employees, to adopt examples of good practice and to transfer and apply them in our educational system. All participants of the study tour agreed that the goal was met. Our cheerful Partners were happy to answer all questions and additionally explained each of the terms that seemed interesting to us. Now it's all up to us. We are starting the new school year full of ideas for continuing the implementation of project activities and the will to continue building children's knowledge in the STEM direction.