The city of Daruvar is a settlement with a long urban history, it will soon celebrate two thousand years of its existence as a modern whole, and its urban core has changed in accordance with the processes carried by different historical periods. It is the regional center of the county in tourism, as well as viticulture and fruit growing.

The town of Daruvar was founded on the foundations of Roman settlements. The wealth of thermal springs and natural resources were the impetus for the Romans to build the first settlement they called “Aquae Balissae”. They planted vineyards on the slopes, which speaks of the millennial tradition of viticulture in this area. In the area of ​​the “Roman Forest” and the settlement “Slavik” were excavated very valuable artifacts dating from Roman times, and among them a special place is occupied by the “Imperial Mesh Cup” of Emperor Aurelius from the 4th century called “Vas diatretum Daruvarense”.

The recognizability of the city of Daruvar is reflected in the tradition of geothermal springs, the production of quality wines and beers, and the geographical and cultural richness of the Daruvar region offers visitors a variety of entertainment.

City area: 64 km2
Number of settlements: 9
Total population: 11,633, and Daruvar itself has 8,567 inhabitants
Elevation: 161 m

Technical School Daruvar is a vocational secondary school that continues the tradition of vocational education in Daruvar which started in 1887. The first craft school in Daruvar was founded in the same year on November 3rd, so our school celebrated 130 years of existence in school year 2017/2018. In 1977 three secondary vocational schools started working at Daruvar School Centre where students were educated in the fields of mechanical engineering, metallurgy, electrical engineering, traffic, economics, administration, textiles, trade, catering and education. In 1981/1982, the Centre for Vocational Education Daruvar began educating and training students with disabilities. In 1992 the Centre for Vocational Education in Daruvar transformed into three independent schools: Technical School, Grammar school and Secondary School for Economics and Tourism.
Technical School Daruvar is a vocational school which educates students through three-year and four-year vocational programmes. The school consists of two departments:
a) School for electrical and mechanical technicians
b) Industrial-Crafts School
Electrical engineering department provides education for electrical technicians, computer technicians, mechatronic technicians and traffic technicians. Industrial-crafts school department provides education for tool mechanics, turners, car mechanics, gas installation mechanics, plumbing, heating and air conditioning installation mechanics, electro-mechanics, electricians, CNC operators as well as drivers of motor vehicles. Four three-year programmes for acquiring a lower level of professional qualification for students with physical and mental disabilities is also included in the Industrial-Crafts School, those of assistant chef and baker, assistant carpenter and painter (9 classes).
Today, the school has a total of 495 students organized in 30 classes (21 regular and 9 classes for students with physical and mental disabilities). In addition to regular education, the school also provides vocational education and retraining for adults in all the regular programmes. Technical School Daruvar also has its Driving School.
The school has 74 employees and 1 external associate: a headmistress, a pedagogue, an education and rehabilitation profile specialist and a school librarian, a secretary, an accounting manager, an administrator, 6 members of technical staff, 56 teachers, expert teachers and teacher associates and one external associate and 4 employees of the Driving School. The classes are organized in two shifts. The school building at the address Gundulićeva 14 in Daruvar has 10 classrooms, 3 computer classrooms, 3 classrooms for students with disabilities, 6 teachers’ offices, a school kitchen, 5 laboratories for exercises and workshops in electrical engineering and physics. In the school premises at the second address, at Petra Zrinskoga 19, there are classrooms for electrical engineering, new technologies, renewable energy sources, classrooms for assistant carpenters, assistant painters, car mechanics, practical classes for heating and air conditioning installations, car mechanics and metalworkers, two CNC machining centres and 4 other additional classrooms.
The school organizes various extracurricular activities for students, student health care through various prevention programs, expert visits and excursions. Students participate in competitions and shows and achieve remarkable results. The school has skilled staff, premises, good will, and knowledge to be part of this project. Our students have participated in school, county and state competitions in different subjects such as gas installation, plumbing, heating and air conditioning installation, electro-mechanics, technology innovators and computer technicians, but also languages and other subjects. Our teachers are educated and skilled enough to teach them how to develop in their future professions. The task of our school is to help our students develop their vocational skills through regular education. The town of Daruvar has been cooperating with Daruvar Technical School for a longer period of time on projects that promote environmental protection with an emphasis on the protection of the night landscape against light pollution, as well as projects promoting natural sciences and STEM areas. As a result of that cooperation, an idea has emerged to design a K2 project aiming at empowering the knowledge and skills of our students and teachers and future project partners on the subject matter. For a number of years, our students and teachers have been involved in this subject through various projects implemented in the field of teaching, including multimedia and field research.
The following teachers are members of our project team:
Sanja Klubička – school principal, member of the expert working group in Curricular Reform and working group for the development of vocational curricula, and has completed trainings for:

• Sustainable Development Multiplier in Modular Training Kulturkontakt Austria and AZOO
• Train the Trainer in GLOBE Program and she is a Deputy State Coordinator of the GLOBE Program for the Republic of Croatia
• Trainer for adult learning, Global Curriculum Certificate. In 2018, Technical School Daruvar was the Regional Coordinator of the Lifelong Learning Week within the ESF Project Lifelong Learning Promotion and organized regional lectures and workshops.

Dunja Županić, teacher of the economic group of subjects at Technical School Daruvar, astronomer, astrophotographer, International Dark Sky member and the author of the project Dark Sky Park Vrani Kamen, which resulted in designating Vrani Kamen Dark Sky Park near Daruvar as the first Croatian International Dark Sky Park in the highest golden category, which placed it on the UNESCO World Heritage List (for more info: https://www.darksky.org/ourork/conservation/idsp/parks/vrani-kamen-croatia)/.
Areas of interest: economy, management, finances, environmental protection, sustainable development, light pollution, astronomy, astrophotography.

• 2012 – 2015 – Open Discovery Space – ODS was a CIP ICT PSP funded project with a goal to boost the adoption of e-learning resources through socially-powered and multilingual open learning portal. This project was funded by the European Union, CARNET acted as national coordinator for all ODS activities in Croatia.
• 2013 – 2016 – The Inspiring Science Education project – ISE (Large Scale Experimentation Scenarios to Mainstream eLearning in Science, Mathematics and Technology in Primary and Secondary Schools) aimed at contributing to the implementation of the “Digital Agenda for Europe” and in particular to Action 68 “Mainstream eLearning in national policies for the modernization of education and training, including in curricula, assessment of learning outcomes and the professional development of teachers and trainers”. This project was funded by the European Union, CARNET acted as national coordinator.
• 2015 – ISE MOOC, CARNet, ISE specialist and ISE guru
• 2017 – ISE MOOC, CARNet, Innovative teachers: applying educational trends and digital tools
• 2017 – 2019 – Project manager of the Vrani kamen Dark Sky Park application form, International Dark Sky Association

Antonia Varat, English teacher at Technical School Daruvar, experienced in working in international organizations (OSCE), involved in projects focusing on developing students’ language skills, environment protection and sustainable development, involved in education of adults, participates regularly in English language competitions in which students have achieved excellent results, participated in preparation and translation of the official application of Vrani kamen Dark Sky Park prior to its designation by the International Dark-Sky Association.
Areas of interest: languages, music, environment protection, sustainable development, light pollution, project management

• 2011-2012- participated in the international ecological project European Schools for a Living Planet (ESFALP) organized by WWF i Erste Foundation (Austria, Romania)
• 2011-2013 – The Tree Ring Project –international research project of GLOBE schools from Norway, the Czech Republic and Croatia
• 2015-2016 – eTwinning project Sound pollution won European Quality Label 2015-2016 – eTwinning project Sign up, sign in, upload, download
• 2017-2018 – Assistant trainer for adult learning Curriculum GlobALE Certificate
• 2018 – participated in the IV eTwinning Mediterranean seminar: ON BOARD! held in Málaga, Spain2018-2019 – eTwinning project Inspired by Nature won European Quality Label as the best project and its coordinator won the national award
• 2018-2019 – assistance and translation of the Vrani kamen Dark Sky Park application form
• 2019-2020 – eTwinning project Power of Youth

Lunar j.d.o.o. Croatia is extended reality company.

On our opinion being top XR company requires to constantly look at how to use new technologies to make people better. To make people feel better. By using virtual, augmented and mixed reality we are on our way to achieve this goal.Sometimes it is important to make our own roads instead of following existing ones.
The same is with the trends in new technology.

Future is exciting.

Our Association was established in May, 2003 in Eger with the collaboration of professionals and enthusiastic youth committed to geological nature conservation and landscape protection. However, the basics of our association were formed earlier, already in the Autumn of 1999 within the frames of the Heves County Trilobite Group of Our Geological Heritage Conservationist Association.

During the establishment the primary objectives were the protection of the Hive-stones, their exemption from invasive species, their rehabilitation and presentation, thus to preserve these unique and special forms of rock formations of the Bükkalja region for the future generations. Since then our scope of activity has been significantly extended. Nowadays, we organize educational lectures and courses in several scientific topics; furthermore we also deal with education, environmentally conscious tutoring and with the implementation of cultural content-based leisure programs.

Currently we have 200 registered members and volunteers, and thankfully for the years-long cooperation with the Károly Eszterházy University many students spend their obligatory professional internship at the Association.

Our results, our acknowledgments

Our association achieved the first place on the national level of the competition for the Council of Europe Landscape Award announced by the National Coordination Committee of the European Landscape Convention in 2010, by which we have won the right to represent our country in the competition for the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe in 2011.
According to the judgement, our association’s activities for the preservation and sustainable utilization of the outstanding natural and cultural heritage of the countryside can serve as an example for Hungary and for other civil society organizations in Europe. Our represented program is about the preservation and sustainable utilization of the outstanding natural and cultural heritage of the countryside. The outstanding value of the application is a wide palette of activities ranging from value protection to tourism development, extensive local cooperation, and the practical nature conservation activities that bring serious results.
With the help of the experts of our association, from the beginning of 2011 we assessed and documented the natural state of protected natural values of local importance in the settlements of Heves County, and the comparison of the existing legal status of protection with the current legal environment. As the continuation of the program, we aimed to promote the protection and preservation of local protected areas through increasing the awareness about these local protected areas and thus increasing their role in life of the local people, so that for the local communities biodiversity can be the meanings of maintaining the countryside values and a better quality of life, but can also contribute to the development of environmentally conscious approaches and the introduction of green tourism through their proper presentation and management. As recognition of our work in this direction, we were awarded with the István Telekessy Prize that was created by Heves County Council in 2012, in order to recognize the work of individuals and organizations that are outstanding in the field of land and rural development in Heves County.

In 2010, our Association prepared the basic professional material (field researches, documentation) in order to initiate the country-wide protection of the hive-stones, in which we could also take an active role. As the result of our work, the Hungarian hive-stones became a protected natural heritage announced in the 17/2014. (X. 27.) decree of the Minister of the Agriculture put in force on the 4th of November, 2014.

In 2016, we launched our proposal for the “Hive-stones and the Stone Culture of Bükkalja” on the road to the top of the Hungaricum pyramid. First we submitted our recommendation for inclusion into the Sectoral Depository in the category of natural environment, then, after the positive judgement we stepped a level and aimed the Hungarian Depository. Our recommendation won again the likely of the Evaluation Committee thus it became an outstanding national value. Finally, the Hungaricum Committee accepted our proposal on the 17th of June, 2016, so the “Hive-stones and the Stone Culture of Bükkalja” was included to the Hungaricum Collection.

The submitted proposal can be seen here.

In 2014, the EEA/Norway NGO Fund supported our “Wide spread familiarization with the problem of light pollution, and preparation of Starry Sky Park nomination package for the Bükk National Park” titled project. The objectives of the project were to raise awareness of the light pollution that affects both the wildlife and also us – as a form of environmental pollution – and to make people more receptive to the sights of the sky, and draw attention to the necessity and importance of preserving the dark sky. In this respect, we measured the level of light pollution of the Bükk National Park, held astronomical presentations and educational lectures, replaced some luminaires causing light pollution, then from the collected data and information, we prepared a nomination documentation for the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). As a result of the decision on the 6th of June, 2016 of IDA, the Bükk National Park was announced as a silver-ranked “Starry Sky Park” thus in our country the third protected area has got this prestigious recognition beside the Hortobágy National Park and Zselic National Landscape Preservation Area.

Andrássy György Catholic Business Academy celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The school was established by the catholic church in 1921 and in 2012 we returned to our roots, so we became a catholic institution again funded and maintained by the Archbishopric of Eger. It is located in the centre of Eger, in close proximity of the Archbishop’s Garden.

The basis of our success is that our school is able to maintain traditional values but also ensures that our staff and students are well-prepared for the changing world in the 21 st century. Andrássy has been providing first-class vocational education in Economics, Business Administration, Logistics and Tourism, and in 2013 we also introduced grammar school classes, one of which is an intensive language learning class. In our classes we aim at adapting our education to the changing economic environment in a flexible way and making it practice-oriented. The tight relationship with our economic partners promotes us to provide our students with up-to-date knowledge, which makes them successful in the global labour market.

Catholic spirit and pastoral care pervade all aspects of our work; we promote Christian values and attitudes in all members of our community, not only at religious celebrations and events but also in everyday life.
Andrássy György Catholic Business Academy puts a great emphasis on strengthening its presence internationally, we have created our Internationalization Strategy and we are involved in numerous international partnerships. So far under KA1 Erasmus+ projects more than 600 Andrássy students from all three vocational fields of our school have had the chance to take part in foreign vocational internships applying for workplaces in Finland, Germany, Norway, Italy and Portugal. The participants of these projects receive a Europass Mobility Certificate as an acknowledgement of their achievement. Andrássy has participated in numerous strategic partnerships (KA2) also as a coordinating school. In the projects teachers and students have been working on cultural heritage, digital applications, marketing and sustainability. Our school is an accredited member of the EBBD community, providing the required education and mobility programs for the students.

Institut Alexandre Deulofeu is one of the five state high schools in Figueres, a 46.000 inhabitants town located in the North of Catalonia and Spain, 20 km away from the French border. It offers the secondary level of general compulsory education (ESO, 12 to 16-year olds) and baccalaureate (17- and 18-year olds), as well as two vocational training courses on pharmacy and nursing (from age 16). This school year the course has started with 853 students enrolled, coming from the city of Figueres and from the Alt Empordà area. There are a total of 28 groups and 73 full-time teachers. Apart from compulsory education, up to 16 years of age, the school offers the four different modalities of baccalaureate: Plastic and Scenic Arts, Science and Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences. The vocational training courses are carried out in agreement with the Empordà Health Centre and the Hospital of Figueres, where students do internships.

Alexandre Deulofeu High School has been part of several European projects in association with schools from Italy, France, Sweden, Poland, Eslovenia and Finland. The school has a long trajectory on science projects on different topics, such as acid rain, plant and animal observation and the First Lego League project, which involved international robotics competitions.

The high school is therefore used to working with many different schools and cultures and the exchange of experiences and knowledge of diverse social realities is one of the leitmotifs of its educational project. Alexandre Deulofeu High School is very much eager to actively participate in this project, with the support of the teaching staff, led by the Physics and Language teachers, and of the School Assembly, the main decision-making body which is composed by the school directing board, the teaching staff, the families, the students and Figueres townhall.

Albanyà Astronomical Observatory is fully automated and is endowed with the newest generation astronomical equipment, among which the largest telescope in the province of Girona. Its advanced facilities allow from astronomy outreach, for true beginners, to scientific research, for professional astronomers. With over 10.000 visitors a year and a newly build stadium that can host up to 150 visitors, the observatory is conveniently located next to Bassegoda Park (Starlight campsite) and is the gateway to the International Dark Sky Park of Albanyà, the first IDA park of Spain.

The observatory team:

Juan Carlos Casado
Renowned word-wide astrophotographer and president of Observatori Astronòmic Albanyà. Casado collaborates with several institutions on educational and outreach projects, including the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), scientific expeditions (the Shelios group and “Ruta de las Estrellas” project). He has written for magazines such as Astronomía (Spain) and Ciel et Espace (France). His images of the night sky have been exhibited in schools, colleges, universities, planetariums and science museums. They have also been published in magazines such as National Geographic and have appeared on television (BBC, NBC) and on various websites (APOD, SPACE.COM). Casado’s images offer a new perspective as they merge the beauty of natural landscapes and cultural and historical locations with the splendor of the night sky and its phenomena. He is also involved with the project “Tierra y Estrellas” (Starry Earth).

Pere Guerra
Computer scientist, advanced amateur astronomer and serial entrepreneur. Guerra is the director of Observatori Astronòmic Albanyà, which hosts the biggest telescope in the province of Girona and is dedicated to science outreach and research. In the field of astronomy research, Guerra specializes in exoplanet differential photometry. He is co-author of several exoplanet publications and has co-discovered more than 10 exoplanets collaborating with different institutions across de globe (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4308-2339). Since November 2018, Guerra is a member of TFOP SG1 Team of NASA’s TESS mission, and is working on seeing-limited photometry.