Maker Challenge kick-off between high schools from Central Bohemia and Mexico
On Monday March 11th, the Maker Challenge competition began between the high schools from Kutna Hora, Caslav and Rakovnik and the Mexican high school No. 19, that is part of the Guadalajara University’s high school network. This project proposed by the Mexican school is one of the results from the visit of a delegation of Central Bohemia Region to Jalisco, Mexico, in October last year, in which the directors of the Czech high schools participated. The project is coordinated by SIC.
The participating teams met during a Skype video conference that SIC coordinated and besides presenting themselves they spoke about the topics they will develop during the Maker Challenge. Kutna Horas’s team will focus on a drone powered by hydrogen unit from the Horizon company. Caslav’s team will work on the use of modern technologies in education while Rakovnik’s team will use LEGO Mindstorms EV3 to simulate manufacturing processes. The Mexican teams will explore the use of modern technologies in irrigation systems for agriculture and forest, how to control the school’s aquarium environment using new technologies and how to improve the recycling system using creative technologies.
The Maker Challenge is a learning challenge for young people who want to change the world. The purpose is to join in teams to solve real problems with their ideas, using their creativity and digital fabrication to find new solutions for social innovation and create functional prototypes with creative technologies. In a 4-stage project lasting 3 months, the participating teams will ideate, explore, develop prototypes and make a video pitch presenting their final solutions to an evaluation committee that will be made up of experts from the academic and industrial sectors from both countries. The two best teams, one per country, will be supported to register in the Google Science Fair 2019 competition.
