Our ESO and FP students have participated today in the III edition of the EBI STEAM AZOKA that has been held in the San Felix de Ortuella centre. The fair, which was opened by the Minister of Education of the Basque Government, Jokin Bildarratz, the Bishop of Bilbao, Joseba Segura, and the Mayor of the town, Saulo Nebreda, showed projects on electric cars, robots made with different programming systems, hydraulic systems, simulation, micromobility, 3D printing, scooters, e-bikes, etc.
More than 1000 students from the network of diocesan centres (EBI) visited the schoool and the municipal pelota court where they were able to see different scientific and technological projects, among them the three projects that our 2nd ESO students have taken, the electric car with which vocational training students will participate in the next edition of the EUSKELEC test and a stand with virtual reality glasses where the youngest visitors to the fair enjoyed themselves. Among the students who came to see the different projects was our group of 1st D Bachillerato students.
Our 2nd ESO boys and girls explained to the visitors the projects they have been working on since the beginning of the year. On the one hand, they are investigating how to reuse the polyacrylate used in nappies as an absorbent. They have seen that it could be used by people who have plants at home and are going to spend a long time at home as a “watering” system. A simple “sock” filled with this polymer, which has previously absorbed a large amount of water, can be used by plants to gradually absorb water.
Another of the research has focused on yeast, a fungus and a living being that using different experiments they have seen how it grows and how it “feeds” in different situations. How it uses sugars as a food source and how it dies in boiled water..
And one of the most curious research projects is the one that four of the second-year girls are working on, with which they want to demonstrate that “plants Know how to count”. At least one species of carnivorous plant that, by generating electrical stimuli, is capable of closing its leaves when an insect is inside, but which optimises its energy by closing only when it is sure that it has captured the food, and it does this by counting electrical impulses.
The aim of the fair is twofold. On the one hand, the educational network wants to awaken and promote scientific vocations among its students, both boys and girls, and, on the other, to show the results of the innovative methodologies implemented in the different schools and ikastolas in recent years, mainly project and challenge-based learning.
Photos of the fair in this link
