On the 8th of May the MYP2(ic) class departed from Warsaw on a trip that turned out to be one of the most successful school adventures yet. It is certain that strolling around the historic old town of Gdańsk, watching the blue horizon on the beach in Sopot and discovering new, captivating information from museums will become core memories and experiences of the current high school students. But lets’ start from the very beginning…

Day 1

After the short 2 hours on the road, we made our first stop at Grunwald – a significantly monumental small town in which the famous battle was fought in 1410. Students had the opportunity to learn practical, interesting facts from the Grunwald museum, such as how the battle looked like and the strategies used, however the most outstanding moment was visiting the actual place where the battle took place.

Walking around and observing the terrain, students had the opportunity to partially experience and see what they were learning about previously in the museum, which made the knowledge easier to understand. Having experienced Grunwald, we took off to our hotel in Gdańsk, where everyone had time to rest after a day packed with traveling.

Summary of the day: Visiting the museum in Grunwald as well as a lot of traveling and hours on the bus but we’ve made it and the hotel rooms are very comfortable.

Day 2

The purpose of this trip was to evenly balance time spent on entertaining activities and on education. Hence on the second day of the trip the first 4 hours of the day were spend on EDB – in translation meaning Education for Safety. The students were divided in two groups, which meant that two classes learned theoretical information in the class room and the other two groups spent time outside and learned practical knowledge.

Being the person in the first two classes, I spent the first half of this day learning how to act correctly and safely in theoretical situations such as thunderstorms, school fires, natural disasters, floods and terroristic attacks.

In order to fully understand how to act in such situations but also how they can be prevented all together, students and the teacher had a joint discussion and conversations trying to construct answers to problems and questions with teamwork, meaning that the lesson was extremely interactive instead of simply learning from a book. After time spent on study, both groups joined each other in the old town of Gdańsk, where everyone had the opportunity to eat something, walk around the traditional, antique streets of Gdańsk and explore.

Summary of the day: The EDB workshops were very interesting and the old town in Gdańsk is magnificent.

Day 3

On the third and last full day of the trip, the groups switched, which meant that the group I was a part of, had practical classes outside. The students were divided into smaller groups, which visited different stations at different times. The topics of the stations included: the correct way to perform CPR on adults and children, evacuating someone from a car after a car crash, positioning an unconscious person in the correct way, tying a safety rope and required action for bleeding wounds.

Each station lasted around 30 minutes and each student learned by action, meaning that after listening to the teacher there was time, for example, to perform CPR on dolls as well as remove a friend pretending to be unconscious from a car or bench and positioning their body in a way in which they are safe and can breathe. Such workshops made me, along with most of the other students, feel truly prepared for such accidents and understand that while keeping calm and focused and remembering the correct knowledge its is possible to save someones life.

After the workshops outside and inside both groups departed to the beautiful city of Sopot where students had 2 hours of free time often used for eating lunch, exploring, buying souvenirs or going to the beach. Shortly after, students and teachers went to the majestic pier to enjoy the view of the sea and take pictures. Then it was time to come back to the hotel.

Summary of the day: It was great to learn EDB in the form of practice outside and Sopot turned out to be one of the most beautiful cities we have ever seen!

Day 4

On the last day of the trip 2 museums were visited by the students, the first one being only a few minutes from the hotel we were staying at and full of medieval objects like shoes or bowls. It was extremely fascinating to compare such handmade utensils to how they look like nowadays.

After that we visited the „Europejskie Centrum Solidarności” located in Gdańsk, however what made the experience more captivating were headphones that everyone had while walking around with a personal tour guide telling stories connected to each exhibition in the museum. My favorite exhibition was a simulation of the round table which included a vintage camera from that time, however examples of the other exhibitions from the museum are displayed in the pictures below. After that is was time to head home!

Summary of the day: We found out a lot of new facts and historical information about how people used to live and how Polish people managed to take down the communism system.

I am certain that not only me but also other students believe that this trip was a memorable experience that was enjoyable and educating at the same time. In the name of the MYP 2 students I would like to thank the coordinator of the trip Mr. Andrzej Galla as well as other teachers that organized this field trip and made it possible for us to have such a great time together. This excursion will definitely be missed!

Weronika Krężołek, MYP2(ic)