On January 5th, 2024, the 3rd informative conference of the project “Strengthening STEM skills through ecology in the Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar” (EKO-RURAL4STEM) was held.

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 and to see the new modern equipment that enabled the establishment of new extracurricular programs and the implementation of modern STEM teaching of students.

The principal of Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar, Krunoslav Šarić, 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.

The project manager, Bojan Balog, Competence Centre Ltd. for research and development, presented the activities which were done so far, and also presented the new extracurricular activities in which the students can participate since the beginning of this school year in the fields of biology, forestry, geography, robotics and informatics. As a part of the project, 7 new extracurricular programmes were developed (‘IT in Special education classes’ for students from the 1st to 4th grade, ‘IT in Special education classes’ for students from the 5th to 8th grade, ‘STEM in growing plants’ for students from the 1st to 4th grade, ‘STEM in growing plants’ for students from the 5th to 8th grade, ‘About the forest, in the forest, for the forest’ for the students in the 1st grade, ‘About the forest, in the forest, for the forest’ for the students in the 5th and 6th grade, ‘Young meteorologists’ for students from the 6th to 8th grade).