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Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 06:30

STEAM education and culture at the European Robotics Week

The Higher Technical School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSIT) will host on November 19 and 20 the next edition of the annual meeting held on the occasion of the European Robotics Week (ERW2021) and organized by HispaRob, the Spanish Technological Platform for Robotics. The conference “STEAM Education and Culture, Do you enhance your STEAM side?” It will have the honorary presidency of Pilar Alegría, Minister of Education and Vocational Training, in which the focus will be on the educational curriculum, the pedagogical role of robotics competitions and the relationship between art and educational robotics.

Writing / Irene Vega

La European Robotics Week (ERW) is an activity promoted by the European Association EuRobotics. During this week, all kinds of activities are carried out, aimed at the general public, with the aim of showing how robotics is being integrated into our society and the positive impacts it can have on our lives. The ERW2021 edition will be held from November 19 to 28, 2021, with events throughout Europe.

The entity that will host and co-organize the main event in Madrid will be the Higher Technical School of Telecommunications Engineering of the Rey Juan Carlos University, based on the Fuenlabrada Campus, with a special involvement of the robotics group RoboticsLabURJC.

This event is coordinated by HispaRob, through its Educational Robotics Thematic Group, one of the national organizers of the ERW in Spain and that each year celebrates a central event in which what has been worked on throughout the year is summarized and shared, and reflection is made on how to continue advancing towards an adequate integration of the robotic technologies in education and in society.

This central event constitutes a unique framework for meeting between industry in the sector, teachers at all levels of the Spanish educational system, students, management teams, political leaders, the media and professionals in the field of educational robotics. The ERW2021 day “STEAM Education and Culture, do you enhance your STEAM side?" will be chaired by the Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Pilar Alegría and will focus on the educational curriculum, on the pedagogical role of robotics competitions and on the relationship between art and educational robotics.

The meeting is mainly aimed at teachers and people from the educational environment interested in educational robotics to expand classroom practices with new possibilities, although it is open to anyone interested in the subject. It will take place on Friday the 19th in the afternoon and on Saturday the 20th of November in the morning, and will have a face-to-face part, with reduced capacity, and will also be broadcast in streaming for people who cannot attend.

Robotics championships to improve school curricula

The day consists of an inaugural conference, by Elena García Armada, Doctor Industrial Engineer, Scientific Researcher of the CSIC and president of Marsi Bionics. Her professional activity is a clear example of the positive impact that robotics can have on society, as she is a pioneer in the development of pediatric exoskeletons for walking assistance. Her work has given rise to 8 internationally extended patents and she has published more than 100 scientific papers, in addition to receiving numerous awards for her scientific, entrepreneurial and informative work.

In addition, there will be two round tables: in the first, "The educational community in the face of curricular renewal", the integration of STEAM teachings in the renewal of the Educational Curriculum will be reflected on. To this end, representatives of regional educational institutions, teachers and trainers of pre-university teachers, University teachers, and representatives of technological and educational robotics companies will be present. In the second, called "The robotics championships as catalysts for the educational curriculum", there will be a discussion with pre-university and university teachers and competition organizers on the potential of these events in the integration of STEAM disciplines in the educational curriculum and its implementation. practice.

Another block of the conference will be devoted to presenting examples of good practices in educational robotics, in which teachers with extensive experience in this field will participate so that they can explain examples of their practice in the classroom. In addition, those teachers interested in this subject will be able to submit your examples of good practice.

Finally, the artistic and creative disciplines will have an important space. On Friday 19, you can enjoy the screening of the short film "Conversations with a monkey" by filmmaker Eduardo Grojo and later there will be a discussion with him; and on Saturday, as the closing of the day, there will be a talk and subsequent debate with Paola Guimeráns, a specialist in STEAM teaching and an expert in Interaction Design and Electronic Textiles applied to Education.

Attendance at the conference is free and places are limited, so it is essential pre-registration at this link. People who attend the conference will also be able to carry out practical workshops, given by the members of the Educational Robotics Thematic Group of HispaRob. There are 8 workshops available, aimed at the different pre-university educational levels (nursery, primary, secondary) and in which the diversity of materials and dynamics that exist in the practice of educational robotics is to be captured.

In previous editions of the European Robotics Week

In past editions of the European Robotics Week, face-to-face conferences have been held at the University of Seville (ERW2019), In the University of Alcalá (ERW2018), at the headquarters of the important engineering company GMV (ERW2017) and in the Carlos III University of Madrid (ERW2016), to cite the latest editions. At ERW2020, the first ERW Virtual Conferences were held, for which a specific web and several calls for public participation were opened.