Telefónica Educación Digital, the education branch of Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica, arranged a contest for students in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) for the second year. While the 2016/17 edition of the contest was launched only in Spain, 2017/18’s took place in Latin America as well. Just a week ago, the jury came to the final result for the current Spanish edition.

In the first edition, we in Arduino Education created an educational kit and content to assist a team of mentors that would in turn work with teachers all across Spain in helping them building projects within the limits of the contest. In the 2017/18 edition, we collaborated on a series of webinars for teachers hosted last fall. In both editions, I have acted as one of the jury members. The level of projects is pretty high in average. Considering that many of the participants come from secondary schools, it is quite impressive to see how they embrace the latest technological developments like IoT or VR and make meaningful projects out of those.

The winners of the Spanish version of the contest are invited to a trip to CERN to visit the place where things happen in science: the particle accelerator. Over 1,500 innovations were presented by seven-member teams within the categories established by TED: IoT, Industry 4.0, e-health, digital education, cybersecurity, and other technological projects. From those 1,500, the jury had to work really hard to come up with the final results. If you are among the non-chosen ones, you should know that the gap between the top 50-or-so projects was incredibly tight.

The following list highlights the four teams that were awarded by the jury. I have translated the information about the teams, but the videos from the students are only in Spanish. I hope you will find them as thrilling as I do!

Project 1

• Title: AGROTECH
• Topic: Livestock automation system
• Level: Advance (junior high and vocational education)
• Theme: Industry 4.0
• School: Instituto de Educación Secundaria LOS OLMOS
• City: Albacete
• Description: AGROTECH implements a prototype to automate the systems to manage livestock. Using Arduino and a series of sensors, it is possible to monitor and refill the livestock’s food and water, control the light and ventilation of the stables, report alarms like fire or intrusions and eliminate leftovers. All information is captured in real-time and displayed on a website.

Project 2

• Title: Virtual Detective (Detective Virtual)
• Topic: Virtual reality spaces
• Level: High (upper secondary)
• Theme: Digital education
• School: Colegio María Virgen
• City: Madrid
• Description: Virtual Detective is a virtual, guided tour to the school. The students have hidden a series of challenges along the way that are related to different school subjects. The virtual space is a gamified version of the class that helps the kids learn in an alternative way.

Project 3

• Title: Recycling Is for Everyone (REPT, Reciclar Es Para Todos)
• Topic: Other technological projects
• Level: Junior (lower secondary)
• Theme: Digital education
• School: Colegio Santo Domingo
• City: Santa Cruz de Tenerife
• Description: REPT is a trash bin prototype that can classify the leftovers and will run a lottery among those recycling once the bin has been sent to the recycling station.

Project 4

• Title: ALPHAPSI
• Topic: VR platform for the diagnosis and treatment of students with special educational needs
• Level: Advance
• Theme: Digital education
• School: Colegio Calasancio Hispalense
• City: Sevilla
• Description: ALPHAPSI consists of an application made in Processing that connects to a VR head-mounted display capable of detecting the wearer’s head movements. Thanks to a series of tests consisting of tracking an object moving in the VR space, the system can follow the movements and will help generating a diagnosis and treating students with attention disorders.

The Desafío STEM project is an initiative of Telefonica Educacion Digital and their project STEMbyme. 

The last couple of weeks have kept the Arduino Education team extremely busy. While some of us were presenting CTC 101 to teachers all across Italy, others were in Barcelona for the CTC 101 Faire with more than 4,000 upper secondary students showcasing the projects they created as a result of the CTC 101 2017-18 academic year.

The one thing that really amazes us at Arduino EDU is how the CTC program has scaled since its inception five years ago. Back then, we prototyped our first full-year academic program and conducted a test with 25 schools. Our first faire garnered 400 participants, about 10% the size of one of our latest events. The earliest edition of CTC ran on Arduino Uno, consisted of 20 projects, was made in black and white, and included a mascot that we commissioned to the well-known Mexican artist “Grand Chamaco.” From that experiment on, almost 18,000 students have gone through the program. CTC has been implemented by 800 schools, mainly in Spain, Sweden, Ecuador, and Mexico, while more than 1,600 teachers have had the opportunity to learn under the guidance of the Arduino EDU team both on and offline.

In 2018, CTC 101 will expand to several countries including Italy, where my partner and Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi together with Valentina Chinnici (Arduino EDU Product Marketing) led the EDU team through a custom-made “Giro d’Italia” visiting Turin, Bologna, Roma, Bari, and Naples to hold special events and workshops to Italian high school teachers, together with CampuStore, one of our Italian partners.

In the words of Massimo, “The Arduino Education tour was created to confirm and strengthen Arduino’s efforts and attention towards Italian school. The hundreds of teachers who signed in to all the dates are a great encouragement for Arduino to continue the path towards research, innovation, and dissemination of the values of open source.”

Not only did Massimo present CTC 101 to 400 teachers in person, he also hosted a webinar for over 900 educators. In case you missed it, we have posted the webinar video to the Arduino YouTube channel. (Please note that it is in Italian.)

While Massimo was touring Italy, I travelled to Barcelona with Nerea Iriepa, CTC’s project manager, to participate in the 2018’s edition of the CTC Catalunya Faire at the renowned CosmoCaixa science museum.

The EduCaixa Foundation has been sponsoring this project for the last four years in the regions of Catalunya, Andalucía, and Valencia, with a great degree of satisfaction from both teachers and students alike. In particular, a total of 200 schools in Catalunya (one-third of all of the public schools in the region) have been sponsored by EduCaixa, providing access to the program that has helped teachers enter the world of STEAM via Arduino Education.

This year’s faire brought together nearly 500 projects from 100 schools. It is worth mentioning how much effort all of the participants put in building their projects. It has been a tremendous journey for students and teachers that kicked off in September 2017 and culminated at this exhibition.

We are truly grateful for CESIRE (big hugs to Rossana and Jordi for their work), the regional ministry of education, as well as Ultralab, our local partner, in organizing this faire.

Today, we’re excited to announce that Arduino Create is now available for schools with Chrome OS devices in their classrooms.

With Arduino Create, students and teachers will be able to tinker with Arduino hardware and programming in a collaborative, always up-to-date environment. You can learn how to subscribe using this tutorial.

Last June, we launched Arduino Create for Chrome OS; however due to limitations with Google Apps for Education (GAFE), educational institutions were unable to purchase subscriptions on the Chrome Web Store.

The new Arduino Create subscription site allows schools to purchase and manage subscription plans for their students, starting at $0.20/student per month. All you need is a credit card and the email addresses of the students you would like to enroll. We also have a solution for students under the age of 14 who might not have full access to emails.

The Google Admin console can be used by IT administrators to bulk install the app on a fleet of Chrome OS devices.

Arduino Create will continue to be available for regular Chrome OS users at $0.99 per month on the Chrome Web Store. Both versions support the following boards: Uno, 101, Mega, Mega ADK, Esplora, Nano (ATmega328), Micro, Zero, MKR1000, MKR Zero, MKR Fox 1200, MKR GSM 1400, MKR WAN 1300, Pro, and Pro Mini (ATmega328).

Visit the new Arduino Create subscription site to get started. If you have any questions or comments, write to us on this Forum page. We look forward to hearing your feedback!

Con el fin de apoyar a los nuevos participantes del Desafío STEM 2017, Arduino y Telefónica se han unido para crear una serie de tres podcast, abiertos al público en general, conducidos por David Cuartielles.

Desafío STEM es un concurso interescolar que fomenta el desarrollo de competencias tecnológicas, creado por Telefónica Educación Digital para impulsar la implantación de nuevas formas de aprender a través de dinámicas motivadoras y fomentar las vocaciones STEM.

Durante los podcast se abordarán los siguientes temas:

• Primer podcast: 15 de Noviembre
  Cómo crear proyectos creativos usando tecnología digital.
• Segundo podcast: 22 de Noviembre
  Identificación de problemas técnicos en la creación de proyectos.
• Tercer podcast: 5 de Diciembre
  Nuevos usos de tecnología en el aula.

La duración de los podcast será de una hora comenzando a las 19: 00 GMT+1. Podrán seguir la transmisión del podcast en: http://verkstad.cc/urler/desafiostem

David responderá durante el podcast preguntas de la audiencia que se envíen antes de los podcast. Para enviar las preguntas, seguir el link que se presenta a continuación y llenar el formulario: http://verkstad.cc/urler/desafio-preguntas. También se podrá participar en twitter con el hashtag #desafiostempreguntas.

To support the new participants of Desafío STEM 2017, Arduino and Telefónica have come together to create a series of three open podcasts, conducted by David Cuartielles.

Desafío STEM is an interscholastic competition that promotes the development of technological competences, created by Telefónica Educación Digital to promote the implementation of new ways of learning to motivate and inspire students to pursue STEM vocations.

The following topics will be addressed:

• First podcast: November 15
  How to build creative projects using digital technology.
• Second podcast: November 22
  Identification and resolution of technical challenges in the creation of projects.
• Third podcast: December 5th
  New uses of technology in the classroom.

The duration of each podcast will be one hour starting at 19:00 GMT + 1. To follow along, please click on the following link: http://verkstad.cc/urler/desafiostem

David will answer questions from the audience during the podcast, which need to be sent beforehand via this link: http://verkstad.cc/urler/desafio-preguntas. Twitter users can also participate using the hashtag #desafiostempreguntas.

Join us for a special weekend of workshops at the Arduino Store Berlin! Activities will kick off on Thursday, March 9th with teacher training. On Friday, March 10th and Saturday, March 11th, the Arduino team featuring Tenaya Hurst will present some of the latest products, like the Primo and the Otto; in the afternoon, the focus will shift towards the Arduino Uno WiFi and the Arduino Libretto Kit.

Everyone (ages 8 and up) is welcome to attend the workshops. Teachers, in particular, will have the opportunity to learn how to present and replicate projects with their students, as well as meet and greet each other during a social brunch on Sunday morning. The Arduino Store is also looking to collaborate with more educators, so don’t forget to bring your CV!

Registration is now open. The cost of each workshop, which includes an Arduino kit, is €59 +VAT and will be processed at the Berlin store. Please remember your laptop and power cord, and to download the Arduino IDE before attending! Have questions? Do not hesitate to contact events@arduino.org!

Arduino WORK/SHOP

Venue: Arduino Store, Danziger Str. 22, 10435 Berlin, Germany

Thursday, March 9th 
17:00-17:45: Meet, greet and network
18:00-20:00: Teacher training workshop
20:00-20:30: Followup Q&A for teachers interested in collaborating with Arduino Berlin Store

Friday, March 10th
12:30-13:45: New Arduino products introduction (Primo, Otto and more)
14:00-15:45: Workshop 1 – Getting started with Arduino Uno WiFi 
16:00-17:45: Workshop 2 – Getting started with Arduino Uno Libretto Kit
18:00-19:45: Workshop 3 – Getting started with Arduino Uno Libretto Kit

Saturday, March 11th 
9:30-10:45: New Arduino products introduction (Primo, Otto and more)
11:00-12:45: Workshop 4 – Getting started with Arduino Uno WiFi
13:00-14:45 Workshop 5 – Getting started with Arduino Uno Libretto Kit
15:00-16:45: Workshop 6 – Getting started with Arduino Primo 
17:00-18:45: Workshop 7 – Getting started with Arduino Uno Libretto Kit

Sunday, March 12th
10:00-12:00: Teacher brunch

Arduino Education is a worldwide-leading school initiative bringing technology into the hands of teachers and students to create a more inventive learning environment. Arduino will be exhibiting Creative Technologies in the Classroom 101 (CTC 101), the latest addition to its one-of-a-kind STEAM program, at Bett 2017, held January 25-28 in London.

CTC 101 is a modular program consisting of 25 playful, well-documented projects and easy-to-assemble experiments designed to introduce students 13-17 years old to the foundations of programming, electronics, mechanics and robotics.

Throughout the four-day event, CTC 101 will be showcased at the Arduino booth (B235) and can be found on display inside the Intel stand (C210). Attendees will be able to get a firsthand look at the various CTC 101 modules, explore sample projects, and enter a contest to win a complete kit along with other giveaways.

“CTC helps build the school of the 21st century by bringing project based learning to your classroom,” says Arduino co-founder David Cuartielles. “The program is one of the best examples of educational curriculum for student motivation, and — most importantly — teacher  professional development.”

Want to get started with CTC? Don’t miss Cuartielles’ workshop, “A Hands-on Look at CTC 101,” on Friday, January 27th at 1:40pm in the STEAM Village!

Arduino Education empowers educators with the necessary hardware and software tools to create more hands-on, innovative learning experience.

Later this month, we’ll be exhibiting our latest STEAM program for upper secondary education at Bett 2017 in London: CTC 101 – Creative Technology in the Classroom 101.

We’re looking for volunteers to join our team during the event, from staffing tables and displays, to helping with one-on-one demos, to providing technical assistance. Water and snacks will be provided, of course, and we’ve even prepared a small gift to show our appreciation at the end of your shift!

Interested? Please fill out this questionnaire and we’ll get back to you soon! 

• When: Wednesday-Saturday, January 25-28, 2017
• Location: ExCeL London, Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway, London E16 1XL, United Kingdom