Under the slogan “Science is Fun!”, the fifth annual Science Picnic was held from September 23 to 25, 2016. It was organized by the Professor Baltazar association and its partners, the Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNet, and the Ruđer Bošković Institute.
From Friday to Sunday, visitors at Jadran Film in the Zagreb neighborhood of Dubrava enjoyed content from various fields – natural sciences, medicine, robotics and 3D printing, and even costumes and cars from Croatian films. A special attraction for children was the life-size walking dinosaur T-Rex, and for teenagers, it was the Tesla electric car and a MiG-21 flight simulator, provided by the Ministry of Defense.
The theme of this year’s Science Picnic, which brought together over 150 exhibitors and educators from Croatia and abroad, was a fusion of science and art. Slovenia was this year's partner country, but the picnic also welcomed visitors from seven other European countries. A record number of organized visits from primary and secondary schools in Croatia and Slovenia clearly indicates that more children and young people than ever before are interested in science.
The expert portion of the Science Picnic offered two interesting round table discussions – the Picnic Business Studio on the subject of co-operative entrepreneurship as an innovative model of connecting economy and science, and the Picnic Science Studio on the subject of the 4th Industrial Revolution – Croatia Lost in Translation. The discussions gathered respectable Croatian and Slovenian scientists and experts from these fields.