The Regional Secretary for the Sea, Science and Technology announced today in Santa Cruz das Flores that another 15 new Programming and Robotics clubs were created this year in several Azorean schools.
 
Gui Menezes added that the Regional Government will invest 84 thousand Euros in school programming and robotics clubs this year: 75 thousand euros for the creation of new clubs and the remaining amount will support the operation of the six clubs created in 2018.
 
The Regional Secretary spoke during a visit to the Programming and Robotics Club of Flores Basic Education and Secondary School, one of the clubs created in 2018. The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture, Avelino Meneses, also took part in this visit.
 
These clubs started last year as a pilot project in six schools of the archipelago under the Action Plan for the Scientific and Technological Culture of the Azores (PACCTO Azores). They are an opportunity for students to develop skills in the STEM areas (Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics).
 
According to the Regional Secretary for Science and Technology, this initiative "contributes to the dissemination of science and technology and to the experimental teaching of science" in Azorean schools.
 
The main purpose is to allow students in classroom context or in more informal contexts a practical and direct contact with scientific and technological subjects.
 
Gui Menezes stressed that these clubs "cover various levels of schools and allow student to learn not only technologies and programming contents, but also other contents through the use of robotics equipment."
 
For his part, the Regional Secretary for Education and Culture stated that, within the scope of curricular changes under way, Information and Communication Technologies will be taught as a specific course, which is a "sign" that this area is "important today and should be further developed."
 
Avelino Meneses also highlighted the importance of the robotics clubs that have been created in Azorean schools under the collaboration between the Regional Secretariats for Education and Culture and the Sea, Science and Technology in the dissemination of new technologies.
 
At the beginning of this year, a training course for teachers on "Comprehensive Projects with Educational Robotics" was promoted by the Regional Government in partnership with the National Association of Computer Science Teachers. It was directed to the coordinators of Programming and Robotics Clubs as well as to Technological Education, Electrotechnics and Computer Science teachers.