03/08/2018

Robot challenge fascinates students and researchers.

"Wow, it's a robot! I have to show it to my grandma!" That was the first reaction of 15-year-old Gabriele Corrêa as she approached one of the stands on display in Pavilion 2 of Riocentro.

A student at the Ceará Municipal School in Inhaúma, in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro, she used a video game controller to guide the machine to the ring stations scattered across the table. Her goal was to make the robot grab the ring and fit it onto hooks of different heights; the higher the hook, the greater the difficulty and the number of points earned.

At first glance, the task is deceiving and seems simple, but the challenge was part of the latest edition of a competition that engages more than one million people and 19,000 schools in over 70 countries: the Vex Robotics Competition.

The tournament includes students from elementary to higher education, encouraging interdisciplinary learning through technology and hands-on experience. Each year a new problem is presented. Based on this problem, students must design, build, and program a robot capable of solving it in the best possible way on the day of the competition.

Starting this Saturday (4), the stand will be remodeled to launch the 2019 test. This entire educational process follows the STEAM methodology (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts/Design and Mathematics), which allows schools to use the same starting point to teach content from various areas.

“If the robot needs to overcome an obstacle along the way, the geography teacher can use this to discuss the different types of terrain. If it has a claw, the functions of bones and muscles involved in movement in biology can be addressed, for example,” explains Pedro Protásio, partnerships coordinator at ETC Brasil, which commercially represents VEX Robotics.

For him, the main merit of the methodology is meeting the learning needs of the new generation, which is born surrounded by technology: "That famous question from students, 'where am I going to use this?', is answered on the first day of class," argues Protásio, who adds: "Nowadays, teachers need to be prepared to go beyond the traditional classroom, creating cognitive bridges."

It's true that schools like Gabriele's will likely have limited resources to implement robotics platforms. However, this doesn't mean it's impossible to incorporate them into new teaching practices.

"The virtual version, also used by competitors in training, can break down this barrier," says Protásio.

Gabriele's teacher, Gabriel Cacau, is accompanying the class at ICM 2018 and reiterates the importance of initiatives such as public lectures: "It is very important to bring the students here to reduce this distance, to show them that it is possible that tomorrow one of them could be among the medalists."