Today, a suburb in Bari will hold a public event with an open lab on robotics. The IC Grimaldi-Lombardi hub school will open its doors to residents to share the local results of Project OpenSpace to the authorities and representatives of the involved educational community.
Throughout the day, the Innovation Gym will hold educational robotics labs for students with Coach Nicola Sasanelli.
Moreover, young robot makers will describe their educational robotics labs in the second quadrimester at school [see news: A Passion for Robots].
"Involving everyone was the main objective of the robotics lab," explains Nicola Sasanelli. "The initial challenge was to provide students in year two with a course on Arduino Creative Technologies in the Classroom 101, conceived for the 13-17 age group and based on group activities."
"I firmly believe that robotics labs are successful when they are based on cooperative work. Whilst respecting all Covid-19 health regulations, we followed the course steadfastly. We organised a course in six lessons, simplifying the content to make it more accessible to second year students, and divided the classes into six small groups.
The first lesson was conceived as an individual preparatory test to observe each student at work with a coding activity and gather useful information for the division into heterogeneous workgroups.
Starting from the second lesson, the groups that were created with the help of various teachers, to increase involvement and promote every single component, were asked to play undertake different tasks, corresponding to precise responsibilities.
Four roles were created: programming, assembly, facilitation and presentation. Each group freely chose the role of each member and informed the coach.”
During the lab activities, all students worked on one or more group projects. On Monday, May 16, the winning class was awarded a sustainable OpenSPACE water bottle, hoping that this experience may have kindled their thirst for knowledge!
The awards ceremony was attended by School Director Giuseppina Pastore, focal point counsellor Antonella Fumai, local coordinator Davide Lanza and various teachers.
“You were tenacious and had a healthy – very health – spirit of competition. This allowed you to brilliantly identify the best solution,” proclaimed the school’s director to the students. “I have seen the beautiful relation you had with the coaches and teachers, who helped guide you and promote your work. You are smart, have initiative, understanding … and use it all. My heartfelt compliments to all of you,” the director concluded.
Project "OpenSPACE – Active Participation Spaces for the Educational Community" allows selected by Con i Bambini as part of the Fund to contrast the educational poverty of minors (Adolescence Call), is a four-year project to make communities inclusive and responsible for promoting the educational and cultural growth, as well as to empower pre-adolescents and adolescents. The project is implemented in suburban areas of Bari, Milan, Palermo and Reggio Calabria.
