The purpose of this report is to summarize and assess students’ excursion to Celje and Ljubljana in September 2022. 54 students of High School Jesenice participated in a field trip where they visited Techno Park and Jakopič Gallery.

Techno Park Celje:

Our first visit of the day was to the Techno Park Celje. It is a beautiful and modern place that was built around two years ago. First, we went to Lego robotics workshop where we in pairs created a Lego rhino and programmed it to move straight forward and stop at a Lego cube without knocking it down. It was a lovely workshop, and everyone enjoyed it. We all wished that it could last much longer, so we would be able to try to build and programme some other things. After the very interesting Lego workshop we were invited to a fashion show in which reusable fashion was presented. We learned how we could use old clothes and turn them into something new. It was actually really interesting thing to watch and learn for us girls, but guys, did not really like it and they all wished it would be over as soon as possible. After the show it was time to explore the park on our own and try different experiments, illusions, and games. The last thing on our program in the park was a planetarium tour which was an amazing thing to see.

Ljubljana and free time:

After the Techno Park we drove to Ljubljana where we were allowed to have an hour of free time, during which we went to eat and explore the city. Our first stop was at Congress Square with its Zvezda Park. We continued to Prešeren Square where we saw the famous Triple Bridge, Franciscan Church of the Annunciation and the monument of France Prešeren. After eating our lunch we returned to our checkpoint where we sat down on a bench in front of the Drama building and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. We all wished to have a little more free time because Ljubljana is a big city and we had to rush to the restaurant and eat our lunch fast, so we did not really have much time to see other interesting things.

Jakopič gallery:

Our last visit of the day was Letizia Battaglia’s photo exhibition. We were all amazed by her work because it was different from other photo exhibitions, we had attended. In her unique photos we could not only see beauty and happiness, but also sadness and poverty. It was a very inspiring exhibition for us, younger people from developed and wealthy environments. The exhibition was beautiful but also a little bit boring from time to time because not all of the photos were telling some interesting stories.

Recommendations:

To sum up, our excursion was entertaining and most of the students loved it. It was a memorable trip, especially the Techno Park experience, which we all agree we would love to visit again. We discovered a lot of new and interesting things about robotics and photography. However, it is recommended that next time the trip is shorter because many students complained about it. But all in all, the excursion was great and worth attending.

Nuša Kogoj 2.B