More than 200 primary and secondary school students from the educational centers IES Las Maretas, CEIP Argana Alta, IES Yaiza, CEIP César Manrique and IES Haría, met last Friday at the final of "Ciberlandia", a project promoted by the Education area of the Cabildo of Lanzarote that seeks to "awaken curiosity and scientific vocation in young people."
“The students participated in different workshops during the past month of May, where robotics was the main protagonist, and now they had to put what they learned into practice by facing a collaborative challenge,” explains the Councilor for Education of the island corporation, Myriam Barros, who recalls that the theme of this year's edition of "Ciberlandia" "revolved around the support that technology can offer to tasks related to emergency situations."
IES Las Maretas in Arrecife was the setting for the final challenge of this project, which tested the coordination of several emergency teams in charge of carrying out an evacuation in a town where, suddenly, a volcanic eruption occurred. The teams, made up of primary and secondary school students who participated in the training workshops held last month, designed and programmed robotic units in charge of said evacuation, to fulfill the mission of saving the inhabitants and pets of the affected town.
From the Cabildo they explain that in addition to having to use robots, the challenge involved continuous communication with an Advanced Command Post (ACP), which directed the units at all times depending on the evolution of the eruption and the entry of lava tongues into the town.
“The participants were able to develop thinking and construction skills, while having fun building and giving life to their own robots, so I am convinced that it will have served to awaken an interest in science in many of them,” says Myriam Barros, who is satisfied with the development of this initiative, carried out in collaboration with the University Institute of Cybernetic Sciences and Technologies of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC).
