STEM HIKING TOUR IN ZAJEČAR:

In one day students of the third and fourth year of our school will participate hiking tour

visiting different working spaces in which STEM subjects are applied. In that day they will visit two

breweries, sound speaker’s factory, veterinarian institute, soap manufacture...

Professionals at each location will talk with the students giving them insight about skills

demanded in their job (both hard and soft). Students will meet STEM professionals from large

corporation and small micro business.

The purpose of this hike is to show students that STEM subjects find large area of application

even in such a small town like Zaječar.

Teachers have organized this event in collaboration with STEM professionals, PGB2S

scheme, and will act as tour guides at every destination.

Students will be asked to give back opinions in a form of survey.

GOALS:

Students will get familiar with STEM jobs offered in small town like Zaječar.

Students will get face-to-face time with professionals from different STEM areas,

opportunity to ask questions and see from front view what they do.

Students will be introduced to soft and hard skills need in different jobs.

During activity they will be physically exercising, getting an awareness about

importance of physical health and condition

They will be informed about local opportunities in STEM careers

Recent changes from global market to local markets in economy will be explained

They will found out about micro businesses that are depended on STEM

INTRODUCTION:

Team for career consulting in Gimnazija in Zaječar consists of three members:

Mladen Šljivović, physics teacher (team coordinator)

Aleksandra Stojanović, German language teacher

Violeta Galik, chemistry teacher

To prepare for "STEM Ahead" we have decided to include more teachers on different tasks.

Working with Dragana Petrović, school’s psychologist, and Srdjan Stanojević, principle, we have

decided to ask for advice on what location and what professionals we can get in contact with. We have

also asked for help from parents of our students, who provided contacts and give ideas for this event.

Finally, we included more than 10 teacher, who in one or another way helped with ideas, contacts,

resources and with recommendations for selection of students.

Using help from parents, and PGB2S tool we have reached Lidija Pejovic, chemist, who works

both at Veterinary institute, and at soap workshop Lady Emily. We have set up meeting in which our

students were to visit both places at same day. Since they are more than 5km apart we decided to add

some more stops on our way, and in collaboration with physical education teacher, an idea of hiking

tour was born.

Working with other teachers we have tried to recruit as many professionals as we could visit

in one day. Shifts in economy and lot of micro business opening in our town made us realize that we

need to focus our attention on both global and local market.

In next few days we have sent a mail asking Zajecarska pivara (country famous brewery) to let

our students visit. We also contacted Beer cuz, a recently opened microbrewery, and call in Aleksandar

Radisavljevic, who already visited school as lecturer and presenter on several occasions.

At last plan of tour was created, as shown on map below, by Mladen Sljivovic. It included a lot

of walk and lot of STEM activities. Two teachers were asked to serve as tour guide, Dragana Petrovic

and Mladen Sljivovic.

It was decided for tour to start on 13th October so we can use good weather before rain

season.

TOUR PLAN:

Starting from 11am student went on following route

1. Beer cuz Small micro brewery

The owner, mechanical engineer, Milos Stojanovic, explained his job, talk about things that got him in

to starting his own business, and of course about process of making beer. He also explained what he

believes to be future worker qualification at his industry… As we were to large group to came in, we

had to split group in two.

More about this brewery can be found on link below.

https://www.facebook.com/beercuz1516/?ref=br_rs

2. Raal speakers Speakers factory

Aleksandar Radisavljevic was physics student when he came upon idea of opening speaker

factory in Zajecar. In time he has become one of world best hi quality loud speakers’ manufacturer.

More about his work can be found at following website…

http://www.raalribbon.com/aboutus.htm

His workshop was small to gatherer us all so we decided to bring him to school instead.

Aleksandar talked about his beginning, about importance of setting up standards and pursuing his

dreams. He showed a demonstration of how he tests magnets for speakers (he has to test each

personally). Even if small company by number of workers Raal is world known name when comes to

HI FI. His philosophy is that in every job you do you must be expert. During his lecture he explained

that to students on numerous examples from his work.

3. Zajecarska pivara Large brewery in Zajecar

Brewery in Zajecar is owned by Heineken and as such it is one of largest breweries in Serbia.

We liked idea of contrast between small brewery and large brewery… It was opportunity to find out

more about difference between working in small group and working in large companies. Sonja Jovic,

technology engineer, was happy to meet us. We all had to pass safety instructions before entering

facility and even though we did see process of beer making no pictures was allowed inside of factory.

However, we had a long talk with Sonja about her job, about all the things one has to know to

be technology engineer (a mixture of biology, chemistry, technology…) She talked about challenges of

decision making she has to do every day in order to assure quality stays the same. One of things she

mentions was that learning is a process that never ends. Even now she has to stay in touch with all

latest technology development, and always works on her skills.

4. Veterinarian institute…

Veterinarian institute is a long walk away from Zajecar brewery… As our student did notice…

However, institute itself covers two district (Zajecar and Bor) so they are always on move. 19

workers are doing all they can to follow and prevent disease of animals and make sure food we buy is

healthy and clean. Not just veterinaries work there but chemists as well.

5. Lady Emily Soap workshop

One of smallest companies we visited was a family owned soap workshop Lady Emily. Lidija

Pejovic and her husband Zoran are owners and use they knowledge of chemistry to make soap with

different aromas…

http://www.emilly-shop.com/

Lidija explained not only soap making process itself but all the dangers it can bring, as you are

working with high concentration of chemicals. Zoran talked about another skill that is very important

in their job. An art of selling and keeping up with all the troubles small business have (especially when

competing against big companies). In their job it is just as important to be creative, talkative, and

manage and sell your goods.

With this visit our tour was complited.

RESULTS

Student were asked to fill out following feedback survey so that school can prepare for next

event. Likert scale was used to find difference between what students perceive as importance, and

what do they find present at event itself.

Importance Statement Present

1 2 3 4 5 Experience was fun and pleasant 1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 All the speakers were easy to understand and experienced in their job

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 In future STEM hiking tour should include more business… 1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 In future I would like to find out more about STEM careers in micro business

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 In future I would like to find out more about STEM careers in large companies

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 Topics discussed were of interest to me 1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 Lecturers were clear and understandable 1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 Lecturers spoked in a way that was close to me 1 2 3 4 5

How likely you are to repeat experience (1 not likely at all, 5 absolutely) 1 2 3 4 5

Results are shown as follow:

1. EXPERIENCE WAS FUN AND PLEASANT

Importance 4.85 Present 4.00

While we can see that STEM hiking tour experience get a positive review it was still less then what was

expected. In order to achieve higher grade next spring more different task should be given. Students

need to be more active and to try to test themselves in different jobs. For example, soap making

workshop can be easily organized at school or students can be divided to smaller groups to act as

”Shadows on job”.

2. ALL THE SPEAKERS WERE EASY TO UNDERSTAND AND EXPERIENCED IN THEIR JOB

Importance 5.00 Present 4.42

It is clear why students demand lectures to be clear and understandable. However, most of STEM

professionals have never had experience in classroom before. So we can see that they also had ”stage

fright”. By making guest appearance in different occasions we could achieve better connection with

audience, students in this case.

3. IN FUTURE STEM HIKING TOUR SHOULD INCLUDE MORE BUSINESS…

Importance 4.71 Present 4.2

In one day we have witnessed five different STEM career employers. However, students do want

more. By prolonging time need for tour on next event we could visit other sights as well, such as

construction site, architect’s office, pharmacy, water factory, heating company, electrical company…

This would benefit to diverseness of tour.

4. & 5. IN FUTURE I WOULD LIKE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT STEM CAREERS IN MICRO BUSINESS &

IN FUTURE I WOULD LIKE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT STEM CAREERS IN LARGE COMPANIES

4. Importance 3.85 Present 3.71 5. Importance 4.42 Present 3.71

There were large differences in opinion of our students about micro business and large companies…

When asked to explain it was clear that one part of students finds small business to be more fun, but

other part believes that jobs in big companies are more secure. Most of them however see themselves

working in big companies and are interested in finding more about career opportunities. Adding more

big companies in tour route and some microbusiness as well will at same time help with statements

3, 4 and 5.

6. TOPICS DISCUSSED WERE OF INTEREST TO ME

Importance 4.16 Present 4.17

We can see that most of topics were interesting to students. It was great that teachers collaborated

with professionals, helping them prepare lecture.

7. & 8. LECTURERS WERE CLEAR AND UNDERSTANDABLE & LECTURERS SPOKED IN A WAY THAT WAS

CLOSE TO ME

7. Importance 4.83 present 4.5 8. Importance 4.83 present 4.16

While most of students did find that lecture were understandable to them, we, the teachers, have to

make sure that professionals keep lectures simple as students are often unfamiliar with technical

terms. Once again more work with professionals is needed as I time they will get use to their new

audience.

CONCLUSION

While we did something unusual and never done before in our town it is obvious that more work is

needed in order to get desired quality…

Starting form next STEM hiking tour we will add more stops, and try to end with some fun based

activities. Teachers will have to work separately with lecturers and guests and finally more visits to

large companies will have to be included as they are more dominate when comes to student’s dreams

for future careers.

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Chart Title

Importance present