A team from IES Salinas has won the Inspiration Award in the final of the First Lego League Canarias, a competition that mixes science and robotics and seeks to promote scientific discovery among the youngest. At IES Salinas, 18 young people from the first and third years of ESO accepted the challenge this year and, guided by two tutors, devised a recycling project that ended up earning them this award.
The theme of the FLL for this year was research to find new ways to manage waste. Along these lines, the Salinas students focused on a daily waste that is very common in any educational center: chewing gum. The young people collected the chewing gum from the playground and classified it. After subjecting them to a chemical treatment, they gave them a new use. Thus, they reconverted the chewing gum, which ended up taking the form of protectors for pens, the small ornaments that are placed on pencils or the protections that are placed behind the doors so they don't hit.
A total of 43 teams made up of between 400 and 450 schoolchildren from all over the Canary Islands met at this FLL final, which took place on February 20 in Los Cristianos, in Tenerife. In the category of the Salinas team there were another 23 teams. A total of 11 students from the Lanzarote center traveled to that island to defend their project. There they presented it to a court and also faced a robotics challenge. And in addition to their chewing gum reuse project, the students also carried out the entire process of designing, building and programming a robot. Finally, the young people explained to the court how they developed their project, their collaboration and integration with students from other courses, and what values and principles have governed it.
From the center they emphasize that their team was one of the few that managed to "close that cycle", from the collection of the waste to its conversion into objects with a new use. But, especially, they highlight the fact that a team from a "minor island" has managed to win an award. In addition, the young people on this team have participated voluntarily and have invested their free time in this project, since they developed it as an extracurricular activity.
The special mention of the FLL showed the "recognition of the team, which has fully enjoyed the FLL experience and has demonstrated extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit." The IES Salinas has been participating in the competition for 4 years and this is the first time it has managed to win one of the awards.
