The closing conference of the project “Strengthening STEM skills through ecology in the Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar” (EKO-RURAL4STEM) was held

On April 16th, 2024, in Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar the closing conference of the project “Strengthening STEM skills through ecology in the Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar” (EKO-RURAL4STEM) was held.

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 30th 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 was to improve the STEM skills of 35 teachers and other educational workers through 15 educations in order to apply STEM learning approach during regular classes and to develop and implement it in extracurricular activities and workshops. The project was predicted to include more than 200 students involved in extracurricular activities for STEM skills, ICT, entrepreneurship and active citizenship. In previous training activities, a total of 42 teachers took part, while over 270 students took part in STEM, ICT, entrepreneurship and active citizenship activities. Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar has exceeded all the set indicators of the project. The active participation of the entire team in all activities of the project shows the commitment of the Elementary School Zrinskih Nuštar team and the awareness of the importance of modern STEM education among the school employees and students.

Elementary school Zrinskih Nuštar has completely adapted and equipped 4 multimedia classrooms with new furniture and modern ICT equipment. Almost EUR 75,000.00 was invested in the adaptation of school premises in 3 locations - Nuštar, Cerić, Marinci.

Over EUR 350,000.00 was spent on furniture, ICT equipment, didactic equipment and materials in the project activities. As many as 76 new computers, 10 laptops, 4 smart boards, 2 3D printers, 20 VR sets, 1 drone, a smart system for growing plants, 17 microscopes, 1 telescope, 1 meteorological station, audio-visual equipment for holding workshops, school furniture, student storage lockers, and numerous didactic equipment and materials for robotics, informatics, biology, technical culture, geography, chemistry were acquired through the project, which will improve the teaching process and enable students to get acquainted with modern technologies.

New extracurricular programs in the fields of biology, forestry, geography, robotics and informatics are available to students from this school year, and given the interest of students, the implementation of the program will continue in the future. Within the project, 7 new extracurricular programs were developed ("Informatics in special departments" for students with special educational needs from 1st to 4th grade, "Informatics in special departments" for students with special educational needs from 5th to 8th grade, "STEM in growing plants" for students from 1st to 4th grade, "STEM in growing plants" for students from 5th to 8th grade, "About the forest, in the forest, for the forest" for students in 1st grade, "About the forest , in the forest, for the forest" for students in 5th and 6th grade, and "Young Meteorologists" for students from 6th to 8th grade).