The team visited the Turkish city of Kayseri on March 21–25, 2022 as part of the Erasmus + KA201 project “Robots for STEM: building, teaching and learning”. 

Students presented their countries and schools to their partners from Portugal, Italy, and Croatia, and admired displays of Turkish folk dancing. After going to Kocasinan Academy, which is attended by women, the guests observed how food is prepared, how the material is embroidered, how the women’s program is run. For instance, the women of this academy have the opportunity to leave their children with a nanny and study for free. During the classes, the students decorated their robots. After the competition, the winner was announced to the participating students. Later, a quiz about Arduino robots was given to students as another engaging activity. Once again, the winners were congratulated.

The mayor of the Kokasinian region honoured us with a visit to the school where we were working with the students, and congratulated all of the project participants.

The next day, the project participants went to an area of the region that is endowed with stunning natural beauty – the Gioremi valley of the Cappadocia mountains, where Christian monks carved rooms for praying, living rooms and warehouses in the rocks. A walk in the underground town left an indelible impression on visitors.

During the visit, participants visited a natural science centre, where staff presented natural phenomena and explanations to the students. At this time, visitors watched a movie about the solar system in Turkey’s largest planetarium and observed the positions of the earth and the moon in different seasons. In other parts of the Centre, they tested various physical phenomena, walked around the dinosaur park, and even stayed in a hurricane cabin. They even had an opportunity to analyse mock-ups of the human body: i.e., identifying what type of joints a person there are as well as what bones and muscles there are within the body. After getting acquainted with the museum exhibits, the students worked with Mblock robots.

The classroom activities alternated: project participants programmed Lego and Arduino robots at Abdullah Gul University, which was established in a former cotton factory, and coded them to play a melody. In the afternoon, we witnessed unforgettable views from the slope of the Erciyes extinct volcano.

On the last day of the meeting of events with the students, we organised an Arduino robot race for them. 

Project participants not only improved their programming skills, but also saw the wonderful nature of Turkey, became familiar with the traditions of the country, and made new friends.