Tuesday, June 12, 2018 (Dubrovnik)

Ivan Gundulic' Elementary School (we came in the back entrance)

Student Artwork in the Lobby Area

Today was a very productive day. We got up and grabbed breakfast. There’s a little pastry stand a few blocks down close to the bus stop. They have a pastry similar to an apple strudel, very flaky crust and yummy. After breakfast we walked to the Ivan Gundulic’ Elementary School. We had originally planned to meet with the people from Croatian Makers. They make similar robots to our botball robots and they distribute them free to schools across the country. Right before our departure further emails with one of the contacts from the company notified us that their company is actually outside of Dubrovnik and they were going to be tied up at a conference during our visit. They sent us the contact information for the elementary school. This school has a STEM program and uses the Croatian Makers.

We were greeted by Nikoli the secretary. She was very personable and excited to have us visit. We referred to her as the “Nancy” of our school. Upon arrival we were introduced to the teacher that heads up the robotic program. Martin is only one of two male teachers, similar to our school. This was the only school in Dubrovnik that had received the robots. We found out there is an application process. Croatian Makers gave their school 5 free robots and will be providing Makerbot kits which are similar to our Makey Makey kits to each student this next year. Their program is an after school program like ours and they have about ten students on the team. While our students have challenges that are created by KIPR, the Croatian students make up their own challenges. They also print out the track for the bot using several sheets of 8-1/2 x 11 paper and taping them together. The tracks were similar to our number 2 track with the tract designed to be used with sensors. The bots that are used have coding similar to Code.org so students are putting commands together but not actually writing the program like ours. They then use a remote control to have the bot move. Our bots require more programming skills from our students but the collaboration and problem solving aspects are used by teams with both types of bots. They did not have challenges where you could add an arm or use the soft drink cans like ours. They do compete with other students but it is an online competition. They receive so many points for the design of the challenge, its difficulty and creativeness. Those teams that earn a certain amount of points then compete in a regional tournament which is done in person.

The Makeblock Robot

Whatthe Makeblock looks like in the box

Martin showing us the capabilities

Friendly looking guy

One of the student designed courses

Figure 8 Course

A course with a roadblock


Tiffany and Martin

Microbits

Martin, Johnnie, Nikoli

We have been brainstorming about how we could have some online competitions perhaps just with our Norman schools. KIPR provides challenges at various difficulty levels and it’s nice to have the lesson plans they also provide. We do like the idea of students creating their own challenges to give them some ownership and really make them think “outside of the box”. I’m hoping to implement this at least with our more experienced team members next year.

Some artwork in the school that I really liked

They know how to make you feel welcome!

Look at the size of their teacher's lounge!

Outside of the School

The snack area

We were able to go and visit a middle school classroom. They only had two days left of school and they were typical teenagers. They were talkative but very polite and happy to have us visit their room. When Tiffany asked how many spoke English, it was the majority. When we told them we were from Oklahoma, one of the boys said, “Thunder NBA”. Funny that we have fans worldwide. Wish I would have had a Thunder shirt with me but no room in the luggage for anything extra. They are just starting to have restrictions about taking pictures of students so we were asked to take them as a group preferably from the backside.

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After we left the school, we stopped by the farmer’s market we had passed on our earlier walk. We got some fresh tomatoes and fruit. We also stopped at a local grocery store. In Europe you must bring your own bag or purchase a plastic bag. We walked back to our room and had our leftover pizza from the day before and our tomatoes. While the temperature is not as hot as Oklahoma, there is a lot of humidity so sweaty days are evident if you’re out and about. We rested a bit after lunch then decided we’d like to take a Drive Around Tour. We were told about this tour on our walk to the restaurant yesterday and liked the idea of someone telling us about the city and being in the AC of the car during the hot afternoon. Our driver/guide was Tomaslav. He picked us up at our apartment, another big plus. He was easy to understand and shared some very interesting information. As Americans we often take our lifestyle and freedom for granted. Tomaslav drove up into the mountains and showed us the areas that had been bombed during a war in 1991-1995. He was a young boy during the bombings. We couldn’t help but feel a deficiency in our lack of knowledge for world history. He also showed us the borderline for the nearby countries of Albania and Montenegro. Being high up on the hill, able to look down upon the city and even further into the crystal clear sea was mesmerizing. He drove us on up to the cable car area for more great scenic overlooks. Afterwards we took a drive in the opposite direction of town and saw what Dubrovnik refers to as the shortest river in Croatia. We’re not quite sure what constitutes a “river” because it looked like a small spring. The natural springs are found throughout the cities we’ve visited, more so in Italy. It is always a refreshing, cool drink and opportunity to refill our water bottles. Water is not free in Europe, anywhere from 1 euro to 4.50 euros ($1.50-$5.00). After the river we drove over to the new bridge overlooking the sea, another spectacular scenic outlook. We have had an opportunity to see many different structures in bridges and plan to share some lessons with our students on their construction. As our tour ended, we asked Tomaslav to drop us off at the Old Town. The day was cooling off and we wanted to walk through the city and see the different shops and architecture.

Johnnie and Tiffany overlooking Dubrovnik

Johnnie with Dubrovnik in the background

Overlooking Dubrovnik

Tomaslav told us that Trump had wanted to put a golf course here at one time.

Tiffany with Dubrovnik in the background

Europe's shortest river

Europe's shortest river

Tiffany and Johnnie at the shortest river

Franjo Tuđman Bridge

Johnnie

We had originally planned to tour the Walls of Ston which are outside of the city. Recently they were doing some repair and found something they were excavating so the walls were not open to the public. The Walls of Ston are made with the dry stone method used in Vernazza. Instead we were able to tour the Old Town and learn the history of this site. There was a protective wall around the town so the town could foresee any danger coming by land or sea. We decided to take a walking tour of the city so we could learn more about the town. There are two main entrances but in the past only one was the main interest, the one closest to the sea. It is interesting to hear about the thought and planning that went into the design and construction of the cities we have visited. This city had been planned where the main street was wider as you first entered and gradually got narrower at the end. This gave the perspective of the street looking longer and the city larger. The city is protected by their patron saint, Saint Balaise and a statue of him can be found on all important buildings.

Tiffany with the worse gelato of the trip

Johnnie with the worse gelato of the trip

Onofrio's Fountain
Water Source is Europe's shortest river

A bride waiting with her daughter

Dominican monastery

Clock Tower 

Roland Statue

St Blaise Church

Old Town is a big tourist attraction and we had heard the food was overpriced. We’d only had our pizza leftovers for lunch so we decided we’d try to find something good but in a decent price range. We wanted to be able to sit outside and people watch. We found a nice restaurant right on a busy corner and had fish and chips, a nice change from pasta or pizza. After dinner we walked through the shops some more and found a cute Christmas store. We both found an ornament. We’d love to purchase lots of other things but there’s only so much room in our luggage and it must be under 44 pounds on European flights. It’s downhill all the way from our apartment to Old Town. We decided to take a bus back up to our apartment area. We had a full day planned for tomorrow or maybe we should say, another full day.

Johnnie with the guard

WALKING ACTIVITY: 6 miles; 10 floors; 13,411 steps, 81 degrees F