Primary education students present a hundred nanorobots to fight the millennium challenges
Five-hundred students from twelve Catalan schools and from the province of Burges have created about a hundred nanorobot mock-ups to provide with a solution for some of the challenges of the Agenda 2030ʼs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The presentation of these mockups in the contest is part ofl Nanoinventum, an educational project launched by Scientific and Technological Centres of the University of Barcelona (CCiTUB), based on the STEAM methodology (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths).
Five-hundred students from twelve Catalan schools and from the province of Burges have created about a hundred nanorobot mock-ups to provide with a solution for some of the challenges of the Agenda 2030ʼs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The presentation of these mockups in the contest is part ofl Nanoinventum, an educational project launched by Scientific and Technological Centres of the University of Barcelona (CCiTUB), based on the STEAM methodology (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths).
Among the original nanorobots created by the participants are proposals to save plants (Nanobotanic), destroy viruses (Extractor) or to detect brain disorders, for instance. The proposal of this activity is carried out through the training, didactic sheets and a bag with experiments adapted to the syllabus. The winners of the Nanoinventum 2021 mock-up published today are Nanoelectro, from Escola Lavinia, and Nanobella, from Escola Milà i Fontanals.
“Nanoinventum is a scientific co-creation project, which enables us to introduce nanotechnology to primary education, aimed to promote scientific vocations and scientific culture”, notes its driver, Jordi Díaz, member of CCiTUB and IN2UB. The project involves the students to co-create nanotechnology-based research materials and it promotes teamwork, understanding the R&D work, based on multidisciplinary. In this sense, next year, this project will be part of the STEAM.Cat platform from the Department of Education of the Catalan Government. This is the second agreement of such features after the one with the Consortium of Education of Barcelona.
New virtual Escape Room and online experiments
This year, the project, thanks to the support from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and BASF, created a virtual Escape Room to explore the world of nanotechnologies. The aim is to provide solutions through knowledge, different challenges based on the nanometric field, including the possibility to travel through the blood circuit in a nanorobot.
There are also simple and low-cost online experiments about nanotechnology that can be done at home and at school.