TURKEY

On March 9-13,2020 the teams from 4 countries Turkey, Portugal, Lithuania and Poland visited Nigde. Our VGTU Engineering Lyceum was represented by a team of 7 members, consisting of 9-10 forms students and teachers Aurelija Čebelienė and Aistė Oškinytė.

The essence and idea of the project “Too Hard to Be Soft?” is to develop communication, teamwork, problem solving, leadership and creativity skills using various work methodologies and techniques.

During the visit, the teachers at Nigde School paid close attention to the drama method and offered students to try out the benefits of this method, such as unleashing creativity, communication, collaboration, self-confidence and others. For example, one of the activities was this: when split into pairs, students had to imagine that their friend was a commodity and present it to others by advertising it. The drama classes took place not only in the school but also in other environments, e.g. Nigde City Archaeological Museum.

In addition to drama activities, the Turks had planned a variety of activities, such as a trip to Cappadocia, characterized by particularly picturesque cliffs and hills of various shapes. Its center and heart is the Goreme Valley, the World Heritage Site. There we visited the Goreme Open Air Museum, admired the Rose Valley or the Pink Valley, visited the underground city of Derinkuyu, which is believed to have been excavated by Indo-Europeans in the 7th-8th centuries BC. After all the tours, we had the opportunity to get acquainted with the traditional and deep-rooted clay molding craft.

On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to reach the highest point in the Anatolia region –  Mount Erciyes. Here, the students tried tobogganing, climbed the top with a cable car, admired the amazing views from the snow-capped peak and celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the restoration of Lithuania’s independence with the project participants.

The participants of the project tested their dexterity, deftness, and orientation in orienteering competitions, where our representatives performed best: among girls – Agnė Kindurytė, among boys – Matijus Bobelis, who were awarded the winners’ medals. Everyone also really enjoyed the workshop when they had to make their own Tesla coil.

We have made sure such projects greatly enrich students, expand their opportunities to know the world, enable them to better know and develop themselves as a social and cultural personality. Let’s hope this isn’t the last project, there will be many more.