- A total of 11 technological initiatives from schools in Madrid, Aragón, Extremadura, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands have been awarded prizes in the VII Endesa Foundation RetoTech project.
- The winners surprised everyone yet again with high-level technological projects that successfully met this year's challenge which was to develop a technological project that included robotics, programming and 3D printing aimed at solving a real need in their environment.
- Since RetoTech was launched in 2016, nearly 45,000 students and more than 3,000 teachers have benefited from this initiative which has enabled them to improve their technological skills.
For the seventh year running, the Endesa Foundation has promoted technological entrepreneurship, educational innovation and STEM vocations in the classroom. The latest edition corresponding to the VII RetoTech Awards was held at Endesa's headquarters in Madrid, with the participation of 211 educational centres from Madrid, Aragón, Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, with the inclusion of the Canary Islands for the first time.
With RetoTech, the Endesa Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministries of Education of the participating Autonomous Communities and the support of BQ Education, challenged teachers and students to develop initiatives involving robotics, programming and 3D printing aimed at resolving real needs in their school or social environment. RetoTech enables students and teachers to develop their scientific-technological and creative skills while learning to work as a team, lead a project, manage their time and make decisions.
The prize-giving ceremony, which could not be held in recent academic years due to the pandemic, took place this year in six of the seven participating Autonomous Communities. The first was held on 31 May in Málaga and, then they were also held on 3 June in the Balearic Islands (Palma de Mallorca), on 8 June in Catalonia (Barcelona), on 10 June in the Canary Islands (Lanzarote), on 14 June in Extremadura (Badajoz) and, finally on Thursday, 16 June at Endesa's headquarters in Madrid for the schools from Madrid and Aragón.
For the Community of Madrid, the San Agustín de los Negrales school won the Teacher Award with its "Autoescuela San Agustín" project, designed to teach road safety education and traffic rules to children. The team created a track where six cars are remotely controlled from tablets via Bluetooth.
The track is composed of modules with roads, car parks, tunnels, bridges, level crossings, zebra crossings where pedestrians cross, roundabouts, and roads in school areas where balls and children suddenly appear on the road. Traffic lights have detectors to "fine" those that cross them when they are red. The cars have indicators, lights and brake lights just like real ones.
In Aragón, the winner was "Circo de Pulgas", by the Juan de Lanuza School. The project was inspired by magic from the early 20th century. A large number of shows used robots and mechanical, electronic and magnetic devices to make the audience believe that fleas that were so small they could not be seen were able to do all kinds of incredible exercises such as passing through a wire and moving objects hundreds of times heavier than themselves. So in the Juan de Lanuza School's circus, technology enables you to enjoy an authentic miniature show with the participation of a bullet flea, a trapeze flea and a the balancing flea.
The festival and awards ceremony was attended by David Cervera, Deputy General Manager of Innovation Programmes at the Ministry of Education and Research of the Community of Madrid, Mercedes Marín, the General Manager of Innovation and Professional Development of the Department of Education, Culture and Sport of the Government of Aragón, Antonio Martínez, the General Manager of Endesa in Aragón, Ignacio Montaner and the General Manager of the Endesa Foundation, Javier Blanco.
VII Edition of the RetoTech Awards
This year, the Endesa Foundation awarded 11 prizes to the best initiatives presented, 4 national (3 "Endesa Foundation Awards", chosen by a jury, and 1 "Networks Award", given to the project most voted online) and 7 local ("Teacher Awards", selected on the day the event was held by the participating teachers). The winning centres in each category will be also be awarded by BQ Education with a bMaker trainer, a digital educational solution to apply programming and robotics in the classroom, which will be activated in the 2022-2023 school year.
To help them start work on their projects as soon as possible, for each edition at the beginning of the school year the participating schools receive kits with technological material and the teachers receive partly in-person training, focussing on each of the three blocks within the programme: robotics, programming for mobile apps and 3D design and printing.
Paloma Casas, head of the project at the Endesa Foundation, said "thanks to RetoTech, students have the opportunity to develop their technological skills and abilities by putting into practice everything they learn in the classroom. It is essential to promote entrepreneurship and STEM vocations amongst young people in order to create the new generations of the future".
National awards: Endesa Foundation Award and Networks Award
The participating schools from Andalusia won the four national awards for this initiative. The three "Endesa Foundation Awards" were won by the CEIP San Jorge from Palos de la Frontera (Huelva), the CEIP Nuestra Señora de Loreto from Dos Torres (Córdoba) and the IES Almicerán from Peal de Becerro (Jaén); the CEIP Híspalis from Seville was the winner of the "Networks Award".
Local awards: Teacher Award
A "Teacher Award" was presented in each of the participating territories. List of winning projects by autonomous community:
Andalusia: CEIP Blas Infante (Jerez de la Frontera)
Aragón: Juan de Lanuza School (Zaragoza)
Canary Islands: IES Tías (Lanzarote)
Catalonia: Celrà Institute (Girona)
Extremadura: CEIP Cruz Valero (Badajoz)
Balearic Islands: IES Sant Agustí des Vedrà (Ibiza)
Madrid: San Agustín de los Negrales
For the seventh edition, 380 schools signed up to participate in this great challenge of entrepreneurship and educational innovation in technology, of which 211 were selected. Since RetoTech was launched in 2016, nearly 45,000 students and more than 3,000 teachers have benefited from this initiative which has enabled them to improve their technological skills.
About the Endesa Foundation
The main objective of the Endesa Foundation, chaired by Juan Sánchez-Calero, is to contribute to the promotion of talent and social development through educational, employment training, biodiversity, cultural and volunteering projects.
The Foundation's projects promote the appreciation and conservation of our past through common historical heritage and foster the present and future of our society through innovation and close collaboration with other third sector entities. With more than 20 years of experience, the Endesa Foundation helps illuminate the talent of the most vulnerable groups and sensitivity towards their demands in order to progress towards a society with more opportunities for all.
#iluminamostalento
More information: http://www.fundacionendesa.org/