Highschool Students And Mountains

At Secondary School of Mechanical Engineering, the Novo mesto School Centre, we decided to introduce our students to hiking and mountaineering as part of our extracurricular activities programme. It has been an example of good working practice at our school for many years. This school year, the hikes were held for students of the 4- and 2-year technical programmes as well as 3- and 2-year vocational programmes. The difficulty of the hikes is modified to students, taking into account the graduality. We start off on fairly undemanding hikes, slowly building up to trips to high mountains. This type of activity enhances the students' self-confidence, the sense of empathy, the ability to do group work, flexibility and adjusting to the pace of the weakest in the group. They get familiar with the equipment and ways of movement in hiking and mountaineering, the weather conditions in the mountains, and develop an awareness of nature and the environment they pass along the way. They get to discover new beautiful parts of their country and their geographical characteristics. The destinations we take our students to are as follows: Mojstrovka (2236 m), Debela Peè (2015 m), Viševnik (2051 m), Veliki Snežnik (1796 m), Porezen (1630 m), Ratitovec (1666 m), Nanos (1240 m), Trdinov vrh (1178 m), Boè (978 m). In addition, we visit the Slovene Alpine Museum in Mojstrana. In school, students are shown the equipment, the way of movement, taught proper behaviour in the mountains as well as the potential dangers of the mountain world. They are made aware of the possibility of sudden change in weather, although the trips are of course scheduled in favourable weather conditions. Students are always excited to reach the summit and enthusiastic about the view from it. For most of them, this is the first mountain hike, especially when it comes to high mountains. Our wish is for students to visit the mountain peaks on their own and enjoy their beauties