The city of Malaga is again the host and hosted the VI. year of the RetoTech festival in Andalusia, an initiative with which the Endesa Foundation, in collaboration with the Department of Education Development and Vocational Training of the Government of Andalusia, promotes STEM professions among young people, inviting them to create technological projects that address a need in their environment. Almost 600 students and 120 teachers from 62 educational centers throughout Andalusia participated this year in the celebration of entrepreneurship in education among the youngest.
During the event, the winning projects received awards for their projects from the Deputy Minister for Education Development and Vocational Training, Macarena O’Neill, and Endesa Regional Director for Andalucia, Extremadura, Ceuta and Melilla, Rafael Sánchez, who attended the event to learn first-hand about initiatives of this edition.
The Primary Education Prize went to CEIP Blas Infante from Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz, for the Super MariODS project, which responds to various sustainable development goals through a three-story robotic model set in Mario Bros worlds, in which its characters propose solutions to various problems in order to achieve a better world , such as water purification, marine life, recycling or pollution reduction.
IES Sierra Mágina in Huelma, Jaén, won the Secondary Education Award for the Sierra Mágina cable car tourist attraction initiative, which refers to a hypothetical project that could be built in this mountain range in Jaén, which would serve as a tourist attraction to increase the number of tourists in the area . Students worked with various technologies such as laser cutting and engraving on a CO2 machine, a CNC hot wire cutting machine designed and built by department professors, and 3D printing. You can watch the video here.
In the words of Macarena O’Neill, Deputy Minister for Educational Development and Vocational Education of the Government of Andalusia, “undoubtedly the enthusiasm and innovation shown by the Andalusian students and teachers at the RetoTech festival is an incentive to further work in the promotion of STEAM professions, support among our students the desire for innovation , technological business and commitment to their immediate surroundings. This is what we want and what Andalusia needs. And we are working with all our strength and desire to make Andalusia more and more known and recognized as an innovative and talented country.”
According to Rafael Sánchez, Territorial Director of Endes in Andalucia, Extremadura, Ceuta and Melilla, “days like today reaffirm us in our work and encourage us to continue developing projects like this one, to continue promoting innovative education as the main tool to create society with more opportunities that will improve the lives of people, communities and their environment. You are the next generation and seeing what you are capable of, we are sure you will go very far.”
National awards
Andalucía has once again received the highest national recognition this year, namely the first two awards that went to two Andalusian educational centers, both in the province of Jaén, and focused on artificial intelligence and robotics applied to recycling. Young students from these centers were present at the festival today along with the rest of Andalusian schools and institutes. The winning centers were:
• IES Fernando III of Jaén won the first national prize for the project ECO_F3 Recycle for Health Change and consists of an evaluation that rewards the students who get the most points by recycling. In addition, it promotes healthy living habits by printing a 3D coin for each recycled container, which can be exchanged for a piece of fruit. The initiative should be scalable to cities. Watch the video of the project.
• IES. Our lady from Alharilla, also from Jaén, won the second prize for her ECOSQUEEZE initiative, a machine that uses pneumatic cylinders controlled by programmed electronic systems that are responsible for pressing cans and classifying them according to their material (steel or aluminum). Its aim is to promote recycling in an effective and educational way. Watch the video of the project.
This year, 215 Spanish educational centers from the autonomous regions of Madrid, Extremadura, Andalusia, Aragon, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands are participating in this major technological challenge, and a total of 17 prizes are awarded: 3 Endesa Foundation National Prizes, selected by a jury, and 14 professorships, which are awarded at the regional level and are chosen by the professors participating in each festival. In addition, and as a novelty this school year, RetoTech also arrived in Portugal, where 28 Portuguese educational centers participated, three of which were awarded.
RetoTech is developed during the school year in three stages. In the first, in order to start working on their projects, participating schools will receive kits with technological materials, and teachers will receive mixed training focused on each of the three blocks of the program: robotics, mobile application programming and 3D design. and printing. The second consists of working in the classroom on challenges that are placed directly on the students, and it is here that the project takes shape. And the third is when they prepare the final project and present it personally at the festival.
Since the initiative began in 2016, more than 50,000 students have improved their technology and STEM skills.
Endesa Foundation
The Endesa Foundation was founded in 1998 as an expression of Endesa’s social commitment to respond to the needs of the environment in which it operates and thus contribute to the development of society.
It works every day to maximize its social footprint through projects to support quality education that responds to current challenges so that the most vulnerable have a future of opportunities, to promote the culture and art of our country, a more sustainable world by caring for the environment that surrounds us.
