On Wednesday 16 November, we travelled to Neuquén to present awards to the winning schools in the 2022 Innovation and Technology competition, organised by ExxonMobil and Enseñá X Argentina. The winning projects were ‘Smart Greenhouse’ by Technical School No. 24 and ‘Decibelyn’ by Primary School No. 314. In total, 12 projects were submitted to the competition, from schools 363, 346, 335, 300, 238 and the Descubrir Christian School. This project offers a collection of nine books to accompany pupils throughout their school career. All of them feature age-appropriate activities that enable pupils to learn about robotics and programming, whilst also linking these subjects to the core curriculum.
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The winning schools in the 2022 Innovation and Technology Competition
On Wednesday 16 November, we travelled to Neuquén to present awards to the winning schools in the 2022 Innovation and Technology competition, organised by ExxonMobil and Enseñá X Argentina. The winning projects were ‘Smart Greenhouse’ by Technical School No. 24 and ‘Decibelyn’ by Primary School No. 314. In total, 12 projects were submitted to the competition, from schools 363, 346, 335, 300, 238 and the Descubrir Christian School.
The winning projects were ‘Smart Greenhouse’ from Technical School 24 and ‘Decibelyn’ from Primary School 314. In total, 12 projects were submitted to the competition, from Schools 363, 346, 335, 300, 238 and the Descubrir Christian School. The programme had already begun in September, and we had provided each participating school with a SmartTEAM kit and training in robotics and design thinking. The challenge was to design a project centred on innovation and technology that would address a current issue facing the school or the community. Organised into two categories – primary and secondary – each team worked with a mentor teacher and set to work developing an educational project with real impact. During the training, the rapport between pupils and adults was truly remarkable. They were keen to learn, eager to understand how each component and element worked, and wondering what the best way was to tackle the project so as to genuinely help the community. It was extraordinary to see, following that session, how ideas began to emerge and how the projects were eventually completed.
At the awards ceremony, we were all impressed. Each school had developed an extremely creative project tailored to the needs of its local community. Together with the judging panel – comprising Verónica Cipriota (Executive Director of ExA), Kendra Hennig (Project Director for Latin America at Teach For All), Alonzo Jara and Matías Szapiro (Institutional Relations at ExxonMobil) and Mariano Batistelli (Director of SmartTEAM)—we were fascinated, and saw it as a great learning opportunity: building on the foundations we had provided, the children took their proposals much further and exceeded anything we could have imagined. The projects were excellent; not only because of their creativity—which is often surprising in such young children—but also because of their relevance to the community. Some of them focused on detecting gas leaks; a sensitive issue across the region following the death of a teacher due to a gas leak at a school. Others focused on water conservation, an issue of great importance too, given that these schools are located in a region with a dry climate, such as Vaca Muerta. There were also proposals to encourage reading, support literacy and promote healthy habits. The experience proved to be very enriching and inspiring for everyone. We hope to continue working together and replicate this competition in other parts of the country.
This integration of content promotes the development of key skills in our pupils, such as creativity, problem-solving, logical thinking and collaborative learning.
