- This morning 240 students from 30 schools in Madrid who are participating in the eighth edition of these awards attended an event at Endesa's headquarters in Madrid.
- In this edition, a total of 17 prizes have been awarded, three at national level and 14 at local level, two prizes for each of the seven participating autonomous communities. The local prizes for Madrid were awarded to the CEIP Carmen Hernández Guarch, Primary Education, for its project called "Plant the planet", and to the Santa Elena School, Secondary Education, for its "Atizador" initiative.
- RetoTech has the support of the Community of Madrid's Ministry of Education and aims to promote STEM vocations amongst young people and putting knowledge of robotics and programming at the service of people, through the development of technological projects.
A greenhouse that captures CO2 from the atmosphere to enrich the air and improve agricultural performance was awarded the Primary Education prize in the eighth edition of the Endesa Foundation RetoTech Awards in the Community of Madrid. The "Plant the planet" project was developed by the CEIP Carmen Hernández Guarch (Tres Cantos). The Santa Elena School (Villarejo de Salvanés) was awarded the Secondary Education prize for its "Atizador" project, a mechanism to dispense chalk and make work easier for teachers and the secretary at the centre.
These projects were chosen today during the festival held at Endesa's headquarters in Madrid. RetoTech is an initiative with which the Endesa Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministries of Education of the participating autonomous communities and BQ Education, promotes STEM vocations among young people in Spain, challenging teachers and students to develop initiatives in the classroom that include robotics, programming and 3D printing and solve real needs within their school or social environment.
The festival was attended by 240 students and 60 teachers from the 30 schools in the Community of Madrid participating this year. Each gave first-hand explanations of the projects they have developed, ranging from sustainable solutions to improving the quality of life in our cities by promoting everything from energy savings to devices for making life easier for people with special needs.
The winning schools collected their awards from Endesa's Manager of Institutional and Territorial Relations, Miguel Temboury, the Endesa Foundation Project Director, María Teresa Gimeno, and from Malena Rubio, in the Community of Madrid's General Sub-directorate for Innovation Programmes and Teacher Training.
Miguel Temboury pointed out the need to continue promoting projects such as RetoTech "to awaken the interest of young people in the study of STEM, especially amongst girls, since their representation in the science and technology professions is still rather low".
Malena Rubio, from the Community of Madrid's General Sub-directorate for Innovation Programmes and Teacher Training, congratulated the students and teachers, stressing that "you are in the front line for the technological and digital changes we are experiencing. That is why we would like these transformations to be in the curriculum, to have a place within the educational environment. You do not mereñy consume technologies, you create them."
For María Teresa Gimeno, Project Manager at the Endesa Foundation, "with RetoTech for eight years we have been acknowledging and rewarding young people for their dedication, passion and skills in the field of robotics and new technologies. Every year they surpass themselves and the technological initiatives they create are truly astonishing. We will continue to be committed to promoting STEM vocations, because they are undoubtedly the next generation of innovators and leaders and, ultimately, the minds of the future."
This year 210 education centres from the Autonomous Communities of Madrid, Aragón, Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands participated in this technological challenge. In this edition, the Endesa Foundation has awarded a total of 17 prizes which will be presented during the seven festivals held in each of the participating autonomous communities. There are three Endesa Foundation Awards at national level and chosen by a jury, and there are 14 Teacher Awards that are awarded locally and chosen by the teachers attending each festival, two prizes for each Autonomous Community.
RetoTech lasts throughout the school year and takes place in three stages. In the first stage, 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. The second consists of work in the classroom on the challenges posed directly with the students and this is when the project takes shape. In the third stage they start to prepare the final project.
The festivals corresponding to the eighth edition of RetoTech have already been held in Andalusia, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Aragón and Extremadura and today it is Madrid's turn. The finishing touch will be put by the schools in the Canary Islands on 20 June in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Winning projects for the national awards
The CEIP San Jorge in Palos de la Frontera, Huelva, received the first national prize for its T.H.O.R (Technical Help on the Road) project, a system to make drivers more visible on the road, given the high number of accidents and fatalities they have in their town, Palos de la Frontera. This involved creating a helmet and a jacket that carry multi-sensors, with the aim of improving the safety users of both motorcycles and scooters.
The second national prize was awarded to the students of the IES Tías in Lanzarote with ROV vision, an initiative consisting of an underwater vehicle operated remotely from the surface, which is used to explore the coastal waters around Lanzarote and to contribute to the safety of divers.
The third national prize went to the Colegio Highlands in Seville with its Eco-refill project. It is a machine found in supermarkets that dispenses cleaning products and it can be refilled as many times as necessary. Under the slogan "Refill your containers, renew your future", it aims to ensure that companies use less packaging and that households learn to recycle and re-use.
Here you will find all the schools participating in this edition
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.