This Monday, May 13th, the Advanced Center for Electrical and Electronic Engineering, AC3E, of the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, held the “School Robotics Workshop,” aimed at teachers from various schools in the V Region and the Metropolitan Region, with the objective of providing them with basic knowledge about this discipline and thereby favoring the learning of children.
The initiative of the ANID Center, which was supported by the Program of Accompaniment and Effective Access to Higher Education, PACE, of the USM, included a theoretical and practical day, led by the AC3E Doctoral student and academic, Franco Jorquera, in which they addressed the components of a robot, available technologies to teach robotics and Arduino programming, among other topics, with a focus on school education.
“This is a new adventure that we started as a Center, with the aim of working, not only with schoolchildren, but directly with teachers so that the impact of the scientific knowledge we generate at the Center is greater. Robotics is one of the lines in which we work at AC3E, from hardware development to the design of the final product or prototype, in addition to human-robot interaction, intelligent transport, design and programming of robotic systems, among other topics, so we want to share our experience with those who work daily in the education of the little ones and thereby show them that quality research is done in Chile and facilitate their access to new knowledge to support their work,” highlighted the director of AC3E, Matías Zañartu.
The teachers enjoyed an enriching day of work in which they were very motivated and participatory. In addition, the Center gave them an Arduino initiation kit so that they can share it and work with their students.
“The great interest that this workshop had shows the motivation of teachers to update themselves and provide new tools and possibilities to their students, which translates into a greater impact on the community through these learnings,” said Franco Jorquera, teacher in charge of conducting this workshop.
Although several of the attendees had varying levels of familiarity with educational robotics, they were very happy with the experience, which ends on May 27 with a new practical day, where they will test everything they have learned.
“I am a general basic education teacher from a rural school where children have little access to educational technology and do not know about robotics. We want to show them and teach them this discipline and we hope that it works, so that we can open up the world for them and they can explore other types of knowledge and technologies. They are very anxious and enthusiastic, so I want to prepare and learn so that they take advantage,” said Lorena Tapia, from the Pichicuy Basic School.
For his part, Professor Pedro Berríos from the Capitán Arturo Prat School in Quilpué, is starting with the robotics subject, so his interest is focused on providing his students with the appropriate knowledge to stimulate their interest in this discipline. “I am a mathematics teacher, we currently work with blocks and the challenge is to achieve applied programming with the students, so this knowledge is great to motivate them,” he indicated.
This is the first of a series of workshops that the Center seeks to implement to contribute to the transfer of advanced knowledge to those who work day by day in the training and education of children throughout the country.
