On February 10th, 2023, in Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar the 1st informative conference of the project “Strengthening STEM skills through ecology in the Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar” (EKO-RURAL4STEM) was held.

The head of the administrative department for education Assoc. Ph.D. Jadranka Mustapić-Karlić, the head of the budget and public finance department MSc Sandra Adžaga, the representatives of Nuštar Municipality and the representatives of the Development agency of the Vukovar-Srijem County all attended the conference.

The members of the School Board of Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar, employees participating in the implementation of the project, and students contributed to the conference together with the project partners, the Agricultural and Forestry school Vinkovci and Competence Centre Ltd. for research and development.

Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar started implementing the project “Strengthening STEM skills through ecology in the Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar” (EKO-RURAL4STEM) on August 1st, 2022, which is 100% funded within the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.

Total value of the project is 738.061,54 EUR (5.560.926,64 kn) and it will last until April 2024. The project holder is Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar, and the project partners are Competence Centre Ltd. for research and development, Agricultural and Forestry school Vinkovci and Department of Electronic Systems, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

The project EKO-RURAL4STEM aims to familiarize the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) topics to students and educational workers in an innovative way, through ecology. All participants will, while perfecting their STEM skills, increase their awareness about the importance of environmental protection, preserving the biodiversity and the effects of climate changes on the whole ecosystem.

The aim of the project is to improve the STEM skills of teachers and other educational workers in order to apply STEM learning approach during regular classes and to develop and implement it in extracurricular activities and workshops. The project will include more than 200 students involved in extracurricular activities for STEM skills, ICT, entrepreneurship and active citizenship. The project will also renovate the school’s facilities which will result in 4 newly equipped multimedia classrooms.

At the conference, the project’s activities were presented, as well as the progress so far, and the guests had the opportunity to tour the renovated classrooms.

The principal of Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar, Krunoslav Šarić, held the opening speech at the conference in which he emphasized the importance of projects that contribute to the development of the school, encourage the engagement of school staff, and raise the quality of teaching for students. Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar is among the first elementary schools in Croatia which, through the implementation of this project, will become an example of good practice in STEM teaching.

Ivona Turda, the coordinator of the expert teams on the EKO-RURAL4STEM project, and a representative of the Agricultural and Forestry school Vinkovci, expressed her satisfaction for participating in the project, during which the teachers of the Agricultural and Forestry school Vinkovci will have the opportunity to participate in creating new programs of extracurricular activities in the field of agriculture, forestry and meteorology.

The director of the Competence Centre Ltd. for research and development, Ph.D. Ivan Ambroš, emphasized the importance of projects that popularize STEM occupations from an early age, because they are the occupations of the future.

Head of the administrative department for education, Assoc. Ph.D. Jadranka Mustapić-Karlić expressed her satisfaction that such important projects are being implemented in the Vukovar-Srijem County because they contribute to the creation of quality and competitive staff in the future.