Kids of all ages, from years 1 to 9 of school education, meet once a week at the Aver-o-Mar School Group Robotics Club in Póvoa de Varzim. It is there that, under the supervision and guidance of teacher António Santos, they take their first steps in programming. “The first cycle involves block programming, followed by coding, before actually starting on code programming. From the fifth year onwards, we adapt to what they intend to do”, he explained to Energiser shortly after finding out, at the Knowledge Pavilion, in Lisbon, that the “Apolo Up” project had won the fourth edition of the Energy Up Award, taking home 20,000 euros worth of photovoltaic panels.
The Aver-o-mar School Group team celebrated winning the Energy Up Grand Prize on stage
The proud teachers accompanying the young programmers can barely disguise their smile and satisfaction. And this is to be expected: “Apolo Up” is the result of continuous work that made this school group an example of how to contribute to the community.
How? By building a meteorological station that was upgraded after the school won one of the Energy Up finalist prizes, which allowed them to “invest the funds in a seismograph”. “We have already installed 23 or 24 sensors and we are providing real-time data to the Department of Civil Protection”, says the group’s director, Carlos Sá. The students build everything from scratch, such as the two rain gauges that help municipal authorities predict flooding and act accordingly, more specifically by closing roads to ensure citizen safety.
A wave of joy swept through the audience as the winners of the various competition categories were announced
At the same time, the children and youngsters participating in the Robotics Club respond to challenges launched by the community, such as measuring tides and creating a monitoring system for public transport. “We are monitoring the time it takes buses to get to school to enable kids to take advantage of the time and conditions the school has”, explains Carlos Sá.
Environmental awareness is the focus of the project consisting of the creation of a sustainable greenhouse, in which sensors are installed to allow for the “determination of watering times”, in addition to an in-house energy efficiency initiative. “We have installed temperature and light sensors in the classrooms, which has given rise to an improvement compared to last year. We have a platform on which the member of staff assigned to each block uses a tablet in their office to monitor whether the room temperature has been adjusted and whether the heating needs to be turned off”, explains the director.
As far as teacher António Santos is concerned, these projects are important to show students that “nothing is impossible” and to introduce them to the world of programming, robotics and technology. “I do a test, based on a concept, and then let them try to come up with ideas to meet the solution”, he points out.
Creativity reigns at the Energy Up Award
The jurors were faced with an “extremely tough task” in selecting the nine most impressive projects from the 81 applications submitted, points out Sandra Aparício, head of Social Impact at the Galp Foundation. “This award will continue to expand. We went from 50 applications to more than 80 from one year to the next. Our goal is to continue to make a difference”, emphasised Diogo Sousa, the executive director of the Galp Foundation.
In the opinion of Sandra Aparício, head of Social Impact at the Galp Foundation, the jurors were faced with “an extremely tough task” in choosing this year´s winners due to the quality of the work submitted
These are the winners of the 4th edition of the Energy UP award
ENERGY UP GRAND PRIZE
Aver-o-mar Primary School, Póvoa de Varzim
1st CYCLE PRIMARY EDUCATION
1st placeConceição Primary School, Faro
2nd placeJoão de Deus de Ponte de Sor Kindergarten, Portalegre
3rd placeSines 1st Cycle No. 3 Primary School, Setubal
2nd AND 3rd CYCLE PRIMARY EDUCATION
1st placeBernardim Ribeiro Primary School, Alcácer do Sal (Setubal)
2nd placeRainha Santa Isabel Primary School, Coimbra
3rd placeVirgínia Moura Primary School, Guimarães (Braga)
SECONDARY AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
1st placeOliveira do Bairro Secondary School, Aveiro
2nd placeTondela Secondary School, Viseu
3rd placeCistercian Vocational School of Agriculture and Rural Development (EPADRC), Alcobaça (Leiria)
