The Italian team participating in the final work conference for Project Make: Learn: Share: Europe (Erasmus+) landed in Sheffield last Monday. The five young students, Teoora, Nicolò, Luca, Federica and Ilaria (aged 14-17), accompanied by Fiammetta Castagnini and Vincenzo Polizzi from the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, participated in the activities organised by the Sheffield Council, lead partner of the project that began in 2016 [see news: Off to Sheffield].
The students met their colleagues from other countries and following a joint session, split into groups to programme Microbit Software to collect data, temperature and sounds. They were then involved in a fun “treasure hunt” at Sheffield’s covered gardens, city hall, town hall, and the big bookshop with art galleries on the floor above. The students made measurements of temperature and noise in all of these environments and then headed back to analyse the data with Microbit.
The students visited the city and learned about its history in a fun manner (see: video with Robert at the Town Hall).
In the afternoon, participants and chaperones will be at the Diamond University of Sheffield. The students were fascinated by the university’s high-tech labs. They visited a Fab Lab with cutting-edge CNC devices and loved the tools available in the Chemistry and Bio-Engineering Labs. Then, they programmed NAO Robots in the splendid Programming and Robotics Lab. In fact, that is where they had the most fun: working in groups, with the help of young researchers, they began interacting with the humanoid robots.
The day ended with a typical English dinner and while the teachers and chaperones discussed the project results, the digital ambassadors enjoyed popcorn and Dr. Who.
The debate during the meeting mainly addressed the technology used during the training session and the age of the participants. Italy achieved good results for the number of participating children, especially in 2018, and in terms of the adopted technology (CNC Fab Lab devices, programming software, robotic circuits and VR tools).
The day of the Italian team ended with a game of pool in the pub underneath their house.
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