Almudena´s STEAM Triumph

 

The topic we chose last year for the STEAM project at IES La Almudena was "Myths and legends, heroes and superheroes", cyborgs and transhumans. We had the opportunity to work in the different fields covered by the STEM concept and mix them with the world of the supernatural and fantastic. 

As a result, we ended up having very diverse and interesting projects which came together as a huge Frankenstein of science and art, a creature whose limbs were made of the artificial satellites we built for the CanSat project, and of the posters that portrayed invertebrates as superheroes designed by the bachillerato students, and of plastic bottles turned into rockets and of a golden gauntlet covered in gems which were obtained through a complex process of crystallization, and of a thousand more projects. 

 So, along with this Frankenstein, some students —Cloe and Mateo from 2nd A ESO, Jennifer, Yaiza and Ricardo from 1st A Bachillerato— went to present our general work to a university in the outskirts, where other high schools did the same in a strange competition in which the winners were chosen by public vote. 

We had to put up a small stand with some of our posters, invents and experiments for other people to come by and listen to a brief speech —made by all of us — in which we explained our projects and our achievements related to the STEM fields; we had two minutes to convince them to vote for us. 

And while a part of the team told our projects to the people, the other part was walking around, seeing the stands of other high schools —some of these stands seemed designed to win; there was a stand with virtual reality glasses, another one had a huge supply of publicity badges, etc.—. 

 The odds were against us. However, even being in a far corner of the room where we presented and even lacking virtual reality glasses, we won. Thanks to a strategic change of position of our stand, thanks to help given from our teachers Miguel Ángel and Katia, and thanks to us presenting even when other groups had already packed up their things, we won the public vote. It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot; especially, I learned that, even when things seem to be against you, you still can win. Just like we did !

Ricardo 1º Bach