- The enrolment period to participate in the ninth edition of the RetoTech awards has already begun and will be open until October 6 on the Endesa Foundation website.
- 215 schools in Madrid, Andalusia, Aragon, Catalonia, Extremadura, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands are invited to participate.
- The successful candidates will develop their technological project during the academic year structured around robotics and programming, going on to exhibit them at the end of the year as part of a festival at which different prizes will be awarded.
The Endesa Foundation has launched a new edition of RetoTech, its innovation and technology challenge for young Spanish students that, in collaboration with the Departments of Education of the participating autonomous communities and boasting the support of BQ Educación, raises awareness and promotes technological entrepreneurship and the study of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects amongst young people, in particular girls, as the number of girls choosing to pursue degrees in these subjects remains insufficient.
To this end, the Endesa Foundation challenges teachers and students from the autonomous communities of Madrid, Aragon, Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands to prepare a technological project on robotics, programming and 3D printing and is structured around resolving a real problem in their local environment. This could be, for example, improving the recycling system in their city or facilitating the mobility of students with disabilities at their school.
Since its launch in 2016, as part of the Endesa Foundation's RetoTech project, nearly 57,000 students have improved their technological and STEM knowledge with support from more than 3,800 teachers.
Schools interested in participating can submit their application until the deadline on 6 October. The list of successful schools will be published on the programme's website on 16 October.
The teacher responsible for each school must fill in the registration form and include a video of up to 5 minutes in which students and teachers state why they want to participate in RetoTech, and why this programme would help them improve the use of technology in the classroom.
Sign up here.
You can also consult all the rules for participating here.
Awards
The Endesa Foundation will award 17 prizes in total to the best technological initiatives submitted as part of this edition, during a face-to-face festival to be held at the end of the 2023-2024 school year. At a national level, three "Endesa Foundation Awards" are handed out to the successful initiatives selected by a jury. At a regional level, the programme offers 14 prizes, two per autonomous community. These are the "Teacher Awards", chosen by the teachers who attend the festival held in each region. The submission will be assessed on originality and creativity as well as its applicability to a real need and its justification, the technical competence and the aesthetic and artistic dimension of the work done.
All participating schools will receive kits equipped with technological materials so that they can start working on their projects. The teachers of each selected school will receive blended training focused on the programme's three blocks: robotics, programming and design, and 3D printing.
About the Endesa Foundation
The Endesa Foundation is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. A quarter of a century of social work that enables us to look to the future with the challenge of continuing to progress, with a broad and conscious outlook on human beings and the rest of the species that surround us to build a world in which there is room for everyone. With this in mind, the Endesa Foundation contributes to social development and the conservation of biodiversity through education, training for employment, culture, volunteering and urban biodiversity projects so that there is a future in which we can all live together and in balance with each other. For further information go to: www.fundacionendesa.org