Project:  ZOO PARK

Description: Officially, in the Republic of Macedonia, there are two ZOOs, one in Skopje and one in Bitola.
Skopje’s ZOO is established in the year 1926. Today, it is located on an area of 12 ha and it has a collection of 495 animals from 96 species (mammals, birds and reptiles).
Bitola’s ZOO is established in the year 1951. It is located on an area of 2 ha and it has more than 30 different animal species.
Nowadays, there is a big effort in opening mini ZOOs in order to give a chance to the children to get educated in a manner of environmental protection and protection of endangered animals. From the other side, such mini ZOOs can contribute in developing programs for kids and people with special needs.
In the past several years, many touristic places, especially restaurants in rural areas, made big effort in opening such mini ZOOs in order to provide entertainment to the children while on family lunch with their parents.
Our school, in order to connect the children to the domestic and wild animals, as well as to improve the quality of the practical lessons for vocational students, made a decision to open a mini ZOO. Even though professors possess theoretical and practical knowledge for domestic and wild animals breeding which they transfer it to the students, there is a big need of improving the knowledge for organizing activities for promoting the mini ZOO and attracting more visitors, including pre and prime school students.
All participants in this project, from “Braka Miladinovci” school, will have the opportunity to get additional theoretical and practical knowledge and skills, related to mini ZOO, especially to thematic mini ZOOs. With this mobility they will also learn about horticultural arrangement of a thematic ZOO.
Students will participate in one of the most popular and most visited mini ZOO in the Republic of Slovenia
The main goal of this project is education of students for building and arranging thematic corners in mini ZOOs, as well as organizing activities for its functioning.

This is the list of the benefits for the school after realization of this project:
- “Braka Miladinovci” school is located in a rural area of the city of Skopje. Students from nearby villages which main activity is agriculture are educated in this school. On their own farms, they can start up breeding different domestic and wild animals which can be exposed for public visits especially for kids (pre and prime school years). By this way, students can give visitors an opportunity for getting closer to the nature, recreation and education.
- Local community will have benefits too: development of the rural tourism, decreasing the unemployment etc.
- Our school can be promoter and all newly gained knowledge and skills from this project can be transferred to the rest of the students and professors from all related schools in Macedonia, as well as entrepreneurs, farmers and other interested persons.
- Our school will create thematic corners in the mini ZOO and will use them for education of kids, parents and students.

It should be also stressed out that participants will share the knowledge, skills and experiences from this project in this order:
- Professors, Teacher Council and Teacher Board from our school will be informed for the project outcomes using a report and a presentation.
- Parents of the participants will be informed for all activities provided during the mobility on a meeting.
- Rest of the students from the classes, the Youth Organization and all other students from the school will participate on one-day workshop in order to hear for the benefits of this project, and the benefits of Erasmus+ programs.
- All interested farmers for opening mini ZOOs at their farms, will be invited to participate on workshops in the school mini ZOO “Animal Park”, getting closer to the newly gained experiences in establishing and managing mini ZOO, as well as creating thematic corners in it.
- There will be thematic workshops and events in the school “Animal Park” in which participants will entertain kids from pre and prime school years.
- There will be more free-time-classes based on the program for “Wild and endangered animal species” in which students can invest their time in “Animal Park”.
- New thematic corners will be created in the school ZOO, including also their horticultural arranging.
- Care and nutrition of the animals in “Animal Park”.
- Preparation of informative poster for thematic mini ZOO.

All activities that will be provided during this mobility will be published on Facebook page for this project by students and professors. Also local and national media will be used for this purpose. The information will be supported with many photos and videos, which will give excellent overview of whole project.
For all activities during the mobility, students will write reports and diaries, taking photos and recording videos.