Ana Farič, February 10, 2026

Gairdin's February Tour Across Slovenia

As part of the Pedagogy 5.0 project, we set off on, what we came to call, our Gairdin workshop tour. We put teachers in the role of students and guided them through several activities developed within the Gairdin initiative. They introduce different AI approaches in a fun and engaging way, through games and hands-on challenges. Participants first explore key ideas without a computer and then later, with the help of Orange, investigate how a computer approaches the same task.

We kicked off the tour in Muta, where we were welcomed by our largest group of participants. Together with 60 teachers, we sorted gnomes and invented new rules for their houses. We concluded with one of our favorite activities, in which we explore the distribution of Slovenian surnames across the country and reflect on the connection between history, geography, and language.

In Črenšovci and Šentjur, we worked with groups of around 30 teachers. This time, we decided to try something different. We began by sorting gnomes and thinking about how classification trees work. Then we moved on to the Animal Tree activity. We worked with the computer and gradually came up with different animal species while observing how the computer built the tree and classified new animals. Along the way, we tackled some deep questions, such as: Do penguins have feathers or fur? What exactly is going on with dolphins? And what is the most sensible way to distinguish amphibians from reptiles? :)

Energized by these discussions and in great spirits, we returned to the gnomes and successfully invented new rules for their houses.

The teachers provided us with excellent feedback and ideas. Their suggestions helped us improve instructions on our website and further develop the Animal Tree activity. Many of the participants are also involved in the DALI4US project. We are confident that the workshops empowered them to independently carry out these activities in their classrooms.

Oh, one more thing. In Ljubljana, the buckle on a belt is called zaponka. In Muta, we learned that it is called kapča. In Črenšovci and Šentjur, teachers informed us that they call it šnola. On future tours, we are sure to discover even more expressions. We will keep you posted. :)