Creativity e innovation They are going to be, without a doubt, the most sought-after skills in the professionals of the future and for this same reason our maker extracurricular activities enhance them through robotics projects, programming, 3D design y virtual reality.
Project-based learning
A project is an invitation to dream and what you learn is to make it a reality. Just as in the professional world, it is essential to clearly define the objective, plan over time and trust your teammates. Work by projects It teaches us to live with uncertainty and not to worry because all the answers are not on the table. It teaches us to trust our intuition and our ability to imagine unconventional solutions.
During the first quarter of the course in our STEAM workshops we have developed these learnings using technology as a multiplying element of creativity based on very diverse and truly motivating topics.
Christmas projects: ideas that illuminate the Holidays
Imagination has been triggered this year in the classes, devising new Christmas projects and it has also been the ideal theme to share this celebration with other cultures. Can you imagine the Three Wise Men, Santa Claus and a robotic showman collaborating together so that the gifts arrive on time this Holiday season? This is, for example, the crazy race that the students ofJujol School They have organized with their mBots dressed as Christmas characters who, with their ingenuity, have managed to program their robots to avoid the surveillance of an evil techno-villain.
But there are many ways to help make Christmas a success. In Jesuites Sarrià-Sant Ignasi They have chosen to design and 3D print a fantastic collection of small toys, cars, teddy bears, or even a chess set so that no one is left without gifts. Some, like the boys and girls of Pia School Sitges have gone one step further and have decided to create their own interactive video game to give as a gift, in this case a version of the famous “Whak a mole”, created with Scratch y Makey Makey. Everyone has been amazed to see how with a simple cardboard hammer covered in aluminum foil they could catch the moles that came out of the holes again and again.
Greeting cards with small animations, Christmas trees that rotate non-stop propelled by gears, robotic sleds... without a doubt the creativity of these young engineers has no limits.
Sharing our ideas with the world… and beyond!
A great motivation for students who develop technological projects in the activities of IGNITE Serious Play It is the possibility of sharing them with other boys and girls of the same age who are studying in schools around the world. One of the main surprises of this course has been, precisely, Mars Settlers, an international project in which various groups of students accept the challenge of becoming the first colonists to settle on Mars. Since the beginning of the year, the teams Pia School Sitges, American School of Barcelona, Jesuites Sarrià-Sant Ignasi, IPSE School and Catholic DS Eastern Ontario has strived to create the best rocket designs to make the mission a success and print the winning option in three dimensions.
Some of these colonies are already in a fairly advanced state and have already begun to build essential facilities for survival on the planet, such as power plants, habitats prepared for the harsh environmental conditions and, of course, food sources grown in greenhouses. specials. In this great gamified project all decisions count, since not only the future of each colony is at stake but the success of the mission depends on all of them progressing and meeting their objectives. With this experience, participants are not only given a strong motivation to learn the principles of 3D design but must also exercise their strategic vision to make the best decisions in collaboration with other teams. Will our brave and determined explorers achieve their goal? We will find out over the next few weeks.
Make the leap to project-based learning
At Col·legi Montserrat There is also no shortage of galactic adventurers willing to take the leap to the stars. In this case, there are three ships that have set out in search of a mysterious alien signal that arrived on Earth as a warning to humans. After solving all kinds of tests and difficulties, the brave astronauts of SpaceQuest They have had to put all their ingenuity to the test to build models with motorized machines that restore energy to distant planets or allow communications to be reestablished with the base. The secret of success is, in this case, in the coordination of all the members of each team (pilots, engineers, doctors, explorers, biologists and alienists) who must give their best to discover the mystery hidden behind the lost signal.
Projects allow us to connect with more or less distant futures, but they are also a door to the past that makes us marvel at the ingenuity of our ancestors. This is the case of the incredible project that the boys and girls of Robotics STEAM & Education, in Athens, researching the fantastic mechanical designs of Archimedes and printing them in 3D to understand them better. In this case, this project is connecting with the work that the students of Pia School Sitges are being carried out on water and possible solutions for its sanitation and management within the framework of sustainable cities as pointed out by the Sustainable Development Goals marked by the United Nations.
This is just a small sample of the projects that we are currently developing in schools, a whole universe of possibilities in which the main protagonists are the boys and girls who, from today, are already shaping the future that awaits us.
