With this project we seek to achieve several crucial objectives for the growth and development of our educational community. Firstly, we aim to promote digital competence, especially in the design, construction and programming of robots, working in teams and cooperatively to solve environmental problems. These challenges will be the central focus of the Hackathon and will contribute to the technological training and environmental awareness of the students. In addition, we want to increase the motivation and engagement of both students and teachers, using travel and interaction with new cultures and people as a catalyst for this motivation. In particular, we seek to balance gender participation in science and technology activities by increasing the participation of women to be at least equal to that of men. Finally, we aspire for the Hackathon to become a long-lasting event with international recognition, adding more participating countries in each edition and thus fostering intercultural communication and exchange.
The VilaBOT: Hackathon Build your Robot project has been the culmination of our Programming and Robotics Plan that we implemented in our school in 2014 and which had as one of its long-term objectives the participation in an international competition and it is still our intention to continue to be carried out in different countries expanding the number of participants. Our interdisciplinary and technological approach is reflected in the integration of programming and robotics across all educational stages, seeking to foster technical, linguistic and personal skills in our students. In this context, the Erasmus+ KA122-SCH project has been presented as a strategic opportunity to expand our capabilities and horizons. The project has responded to the need to integrate multilingual and digital competences in a cooperative learning environment, taking advantage of robotics as a vehicle for educational innovation and social inclusion. We are committed to promoting STEM skills, especially among female students, and to developing a sense of European citizenship and intercultural openness in our students.