Project that explores the educational potential of automata meets in Coimbra

On the 21st and 22nd of November, the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra (FPCEUC) hosted a working meeting within the framework of the European project AutoSTEM. According to the project coordinator and professor at the FPCEUC, Piedade Vaz, "the main objective of AutoSTEM is to explore the educational potential of automata - self-moving toys - to motivate children between the ages of 4 and 7 in scientific fields, as well as to improve their skills, initiative, self-esteem and creativity".

Piedade Vaz adds: "We are developing different prototypes with different types of mechanisms. These automata have been developed with the help of undergraduate and graduate students in Educational Sciences, and include not only a very simple construction for school-age children (for example, jelly birds), but also more complex devices, such as the rotating mechanism".

The UC is the coordinator of the project, which involves international partners from the UK, Bulgaria, Italy and Norway, and is funded by the Erasmus+ programme. More information is available here.

^{Translation by Diana Taborda}