bea martinez
Sewer
Monday, May 22, 2023, 00:49
Innovation is the wheel that makes society turn. Companies and public administrations dedicate great material and economic efforts to create new technology, products, systems or procedures that, however insignificant they may seem, are precursors of great scientific, technological, economic or social advances.
To keep this wheel turning, this innovative character must be inoculated in the new generations through initiatives that promote their entrepreneurial character and make them protagonists of these changes. This is precisely the objective of ‘The Challenge’ 2023 awards, organized by ‘la Caixa’ Foundation. Through Educaixa, the entity’s program focused on education, the awards seek to encourage quality teaching based on challenges in which students and their teachers develop innovative projects, improve their skills and approach real professional contexts. The ultimate goal is for these young people to be part of “the generation of change that shakes the foundations of the world”, they stand out from the entity.
‘The Challenge’ is a contest for young people in the third and fourth years of ESO, Basic Vocational Training, Baccalaureate and Intermediate Training Cycles. The groups, made up of three or four students, had to carry out a project that contributed to one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and that was framed in one of the six available itineraries: Young Entrepreneurs, Communicate, BeCritical, Emociona, STEAMxChange and Big Data. . The 103 finalist teams, from Spain and Portugal, met at the beginning of May in Barcelona on the campus of ‘The Challenge’ organized by Educaixa.
For three days, the different teams, accompanied by their teachers, improved their projects with the support of ‘educoaches’, young people specialized in one of the available itineraries. The participating students also received workshops, talks and experiences programmed to train skills, foster relationships between them and share learning.
Following this meeting, ‘la Caixa’ Foundation recently announced the 17 winning teams, made up of 64 students and 17 teachers, who will travel to the United States this summer as prizes. Among the winners, the Region was present thanks to the Francisco Salzillo Institute, from Alcantarilla, selected for its ‘#Freeamianto’ project.
A material that affects health
The history of IES Francisco Salzillo with ‘The Challenge’ began in 2022. Language and Literature professor Mercedes Guzmán, along with other members of the faculty, got started last October, when they began to encourage their students to launch projects in which they develop communication and socio-emotional skills, promote scientific research and entrepreneurship and promote critical thinking. One of these projects has been ‘#Freeamianto’, prepared by three 4th ESO students (Enrique López, José Martínez and Juan José Capel), which is focused on the SDG ‘Health and well-being’.
The choice of this hazardous material for health as the main theme of the project was not a casual choice. The students thought of it thanks to their previous participation in another European project that they carried out together with young people from another city in Italy “that had the same problem that we had in Spain with the company that manufactured it,” says Mercedes Guzmán, who also points out how triggering the memory of the students of “a demonstration by parents of the Jacinto Benavente school in which they requested the removal of the roof of a sports hall that was made of asbestos”.
From that point on, the students carried out intense research work in which they studied the health consequences of this material and carried out a survey by the institute “to find out if young people knew what asbestos entails,” he stresses. the teacher. On the other hand, they analyzed the possible solutions available and the members of society with whom they could ally themselves in order to eradicate the problem. In this sense, they had videoconferences with the Italian students with whom they previously collaborated to learn about their experience and with a company that removes asbestos, and they met with members of the Department of the Environment of the Sewer City Council, among other actions. All this information was captured clearly and concisely on a web page and summarized in a one and a half minute video.
an unexpected prize
After going through ‘The Challenge’, where they presented ‘#Freeamianto’ before different experts, all that remained was to wait for the jury’s decision, which for Mercedes Guzmán has been “incredible”. «On the Barcelona campus, 103 projects have participated that have a lot of strength. There are many very original ideas and you don’t expect yours to be the one selected. The students were in a cloud, because they have worked hard and it is a huge reward », she highlights.
Although the protagonists of the victory are these youngsters, this award is also confirmation that the center is on the right track. Faced with the classic memorization, the IES Francisco Salzillo has promoted a new methodology in many subjects in which project-based learning is integrated. This new way of consolidating knowledge is key for Mercedes Guzmán, who values it as “more significant learning. They assimilate concepts and unconsciously develop a series of skills, such as teamwork or relating content, for example, which they will continue to need both in high school and at university or when they have a job. For me the whole process has been very enriching.”
Presentation at the UN
The effort of these three students and their teacher will be rewarded this summer. The four of them, together with the other 16 winning teams from centers in Spain and Portugal, will travel to the United States for a training stay in which they will get to know some of the most prestigious universities in New York and Boston, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale and Columbia. Although it already sounds interesting, these guys from Alcantarilla will experience an even more special moment: they will have to present their project at the United Nations headquarters.
#IEs #Francisco #Salzillo #travels #United #States #winning #challenge