STEAM in CR

[Sam Wilson]

LiCR,

The school system in our pueblecito is so horrible it is depressing to think about the future in store for its alumni. However I spent some encouraging time at the Maker Faire Guanacaste event in Santa Cruz this past weekend. Not only was it a coolish maker faire, but 20 teams of Guanacaste highschoolers competed in a SumoBot competition for the final event.  The U of Cenfotec (Somos lo que Sabemos) along with some illustrious partners (IBM, Coopeguanacaste, CRCibernética - a CR microcontroller distributor, Priton - a CR 3D printer supplier, and others) have been hosting Maker Faires around and about and this one was less than 2 hours away.

        

Next Maker Faire Event in San José

So a daughter and her daughter and I headed off to see the wizardry. The daughter's daughter is one of 30 finalists in the whole country in an Ella es Astronauta program with the She-Is Foundation and NASA.  She's 12 years old now and for the 1st time I've seen her interested in something besides Tik-Tok and Barbies. Her mother and I are trying to be super encouraging of her interest in science learning to the point that I fear we are on the verge of becoming something like those crazy West Texas cheerleader mom's.

The Fundación She Is was founded by a Colombian mother while she was working at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington D.C. with the stated goal of promoting girl power in Latin America.  ;-)

En la Fundación She Is, creemos firmemente en el poder del apoyo económico, la educación y la inclusión para empoderar a mujeres y niñas, y estamos comprometidos a continuar nuestra labor para crear un futuro más igualitario y prometedor.

 We've got 4 girls and between them they've got 4 girls.  We are very much into girl power.  jajaja.

The STEAM (STEM+Art) leg of the She Is Foundation has partnered up with NASA's Houston Space Center to provide STEAM education to vulnerable youth (I guess we qualify?) and the Ella es Astronauta program is the result. Its main mission is to positively impact the lives of girls and young women ages 11 to 16 living in extreme poverty and vulnerability, challenging gender stereotypes and breaking economic barriers. The program focuses on empowering, motivating, and inspiring these young women to become national role models through STEAM education. The program spans four months of virtual learning, culminating in a week of immersion at NASA's Space Center Houston, where participants will have the opportunity to experience the space environment firsthand and enhance their skills through hands-on activities and enriching experiences. Our little girl has been sticking with it and is seriously going for the brass ring. Her hard work is paying off.  I just got her a passport so should she be selected to go to NASA she'll be ready and able.

A good bit more than 400 moons ago, I was president of the oldest robot club in the USA and competed robustly in competition with clever folks. It was a super interesting time before smartphones, before the World Wide Web, and when most folks had never heard of Microsoft. At the SumoBot competition I was like a play-by-play announcer for the spectators nearby as I would point out to our family things that were not so obvious to the untrained eye:

That one is not using its sonar!  This one is running a random mindless algorithm focused on not crossing the white line...  The other one is scanning too fast and will never detect its opponent...  Better equipped teams are slipping in fresh batteries after every round so they've got more push... Etc.

We made good contacts with the organizers and the technical teams and are now gearing up to start a high school robot club in our little corner of the jungle. It looks like we might be able to tap into some sponsorships to get donated equipment and parts and I promised our aspiring roboticists that we could easily beat any of the teams at the competition if they want to get serious about it.

Of the 20 high school teams, 19 were from private "Colegios Científicos" and 1 was from our Liberia Colegio Científico which is public but has very high entrance standards. The Colegios Científicos (CCC) are public, free, pre-university schools in which students study very intensively with an emphasis on mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and computer science. Costa Rica's 10 Colegios Científicos were created by law in 1990 and operate in or next to the public universities (UCR, UNA, ENED, and ITCR) so they can use the university laboratories and resources.  I don't know if it was Arias 1.0 or Calderón who had the smart juju to create this breeding ground for future brains, but I'll give either one the credit for something good juxtaposed to CR's modern politicians which seem to be hell bent on focusing on anything but trying to do something good for the country.

BTW, our little CCC Liberia won the competition and a fine looking 3D printer for the school.

Maybe, just maybe, we can turn around this trainwreck of an education our little ones are getting.  I'm super skeptical that anything will change without busting up the sindicatos, but at least I'll go down fighting... 

--

Sam