Tufts CEEO visits Brazil!

In the ongoing collaboration between Tufts CEEO and various partners of the Brazil Creative Learning Network (BCLN), graduate student Milan Dahal and Tech and Play project administrator Alison Earnhart spent 16 days touring three Brazilian cities, attending STEM festivals, visiting schools, and continuing work on the SmartMotors endeavor. In a display of international camaraderie, Milan and Alison were able to visit each of their Brazilian colleagues who came to Boston this past July, further strengthening the Tech and Play network.

Their first stop was the state of Minas Gerais, visiting professor Eduardo Bento Pereira of the Federal University of São João del Rei (UFSJ). Professor Pereira and his impressive team of dedicated undergraduate students have been creating a robust maker space where students and educators alike can have hands-on experiences with playful learning. When Alison and Milan arrived, Professor Pereira was hosting a Novel Engineering workshop for local STEM educators. After touring the university facilities, the group got down to business with assembling and testing their latest iterations of the SmartMotor box as well as creating a number of mechanical devices to use as demonstrations for the upcoming Festival of Invention and Creativity, sponsored in part by BCLN. Day one of the festival saw educators from the surrounding areas assemble for immersive workshops on Scratch, TinkerCAD, and building mechanical systems with found materials. BCLN representative Carol Rodeghiero was on hand to share a brand new interactive coding app for smartphones developed by MIT Lifelong Kindergarten. On Day 2, busloads of schoolchildren flooded the UFSJ campus library for a morning of interactive projects, playful creating, and hands-on demonstrations of new tech. Among the many exhibits was a table for Milan’s SmartMotor work!

Moving on to Porto Alegre in the southernmost part of Brazil, Milan and Alison visited BCLN colleagues at the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS) just in time for their regional Festival of Invention and Creativity. Professors André Peres and Silvia de Castro Bertagnolli of IFRS led a huge team of graduate students, researchers, and BCLN partners to put on a massive festival hosting hundreds of educators and students from around the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The two day event saw various workshops and presentations, as well as a theatrical production and children’s choir. Fabiana Lorenzi, one of the BCLN organizers at the festival, helped to facilitate an additional visit from Tufts CEEO when Tufts graduate student Yume Xu zoomed in with her students at Malden High School. Yume and the Malden High students were special virtual guests, giving a presentation on their maker space and community garden – another Tech and Play project! Students at the festival were surprised and excited to see a presentation given by fellow teens in the US, and many educators are keen to start their own community gardens at their schools.

While in Porto Alegre, Alison and Milan also had the opportunity to visit some schools to see makerspaces and playful hands-on learning in action. At one local elementary school, students were making handheld games from paper tubes and plastic rings – a fantastic example of using “found” materials to make items that are both functional and artistic. At another school, students collaborated on making an immersive classroom experience that teaches students what it would be like to be deep under the ocean. Students used black lights, real sand, and even produced their own underwater sounds to create a whole sensory experience for their peers!

On the last leg of their adventure, Milan and Alison found themselves exploring São Paulo with BCLN educators João Adriano Freitas and Nathan Rabinovitch. Visits included a tour of a local city community center that hosts maker events and classes, the University of São Paulo’s electrical engineering department, and of course, watching a world cup football match. A big highlight was getting to meet with the minister of education of São Bernardo do Campo, a major city just outside São Paulo. Alison and Milan spoke with the minister about the benefits of playful, hands-on learning experiences in schools, and then toured a local elementary school. At the school, students in the makerspace were building mechanical models of rotating Earths that demonstrate the source of night and day on the planet. A perfect example of incorporating engineering into a science lesson!

While they are still recovering from their long journey abroad, Alison and Milan are already working on the next steps to keep up this partnership. Tufts CEEO looks forward to ongoing collaborations with UFSJ, IFRS, and BCLN on bringing low-cost, accessible robotics tech to students in Brazil and all over the world.

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