On Monday, 1 April, the students of Savremena visited the magnificent city of Vršac and the Hemofarm factory. Year 11 students came back richer with knowledge in Biology, Geography, History, Chemistry and Economics.

The subject teachers who travelled with the students organised many different activities for the students to participate in, and the whole field trip was as interesting as it was important for the students’ academia.

Hemofarm factory

International School Savremena believes that hands-on knowledge is a valuable aspect of the learning process. That is why the school organised the visit to one of the most successful businesses in our country.

The students and teachers alike visited three departments in the Hemofarm factory – the production facility where injections are made, high rack storage and the facility for medication packaging. The most fascinating of the three was the high rack storage facility. As the only example of such a modernised facility in the Balkans, this department is a fully automatic warehouse with robots packaging pallets up to the height of 12 m.

It is extremely important for the students to be up to date with the latest trends of the modern world, which is precisely why the school enabled them to see one of the completely robotised warehouses which can be lauded as having safety measures that comply with the highest world standards. With their Economics teacher they discussed the inner workings of such a big company; for their Geography class, they had to identify the inputs and outputs at Hemofarm, and draw diagrams of the manufacturing process.

Renewable energy, plants and legends

After the visit to the factory, Savremena students went on to explore the city of Vršac and its immediate surroundings. They visited the Tower of Vršac, the salt marshes Margita and the Castle in Kapetanovo. The history of the locality proved to be rather interesting with numerous legends and myths surrounding it. The History teacher held all the students captivated as he told them about the legends of Kapetanovo and the historical sites in Vršac. Savremena’s biologists explored the land of the salt marshes, taking samples for further research of the specific bacteria present in the soil. And the young Geography scholars united their strengths with the Historians to discuss the position of the Hill of Vršac from both perspectives.

Contemporary topics were not lacking here, either. The wind farms as renewable energy sources as well as oil fields were debated on, as their advantages and disadvantages were explored. And for a truly different Savremena flair, the technology used in the classroom was taken outside of the school as well. The salt marshes were an excellent environment for the students to use the Plant Snap app to identify the plant and research its adaptation to the climate.

Many visits to come

In the true spirit of International School Savremena, this field trip was both educational and intriguing. We are looking forward to many diverse activities in the school in the days to come.