On Friday afternoon May 29 the Maker Faire Prague Online Edition 2020 was inaugurated, due to the public health crisis this is the first-time ever that this type of events went virtual. Maker Faires around the world seek to promote talent and an innovative culture. The event lasted 2 days with more than 40 workshops and 30 broadcast live interviews with maker from all around. During this event, SIC sponsored an international panel discussion called “Techno-creative Society Maker Education practices to face future challenges”, where we welcomed back our foreign experts from Mexico and Canada to talk about what Maker Education, how it can empower teachers and students within the so-called creative economy and Industry 4.0, and the technologies accessible for schools.
SIC also participated in one of the live interviews. Martina Vycudilikova, Project Manager for R&D and research together with Petr Lelovski, teachers from the Emil Kolben Technical High School and one of his students, presented live one of the core tools of Maker Education, which is the microcontroller. In this case showing Robot in a Can, one of the microcontrollers used during the pilot project last November. During the live interview Petr Lelovski talked about the competencies developed in teachers and students when using a maker method and tools for learning experiences, among them, critical thinking, adaptability, collaboration, communication, entrepreneurship and fast prototyping. You can see the interview here – Saturday live broadcast from minute 52:20). As an unexpected bonus, Robot in a Can also appeared briefly in the program Déčko Česká Televize who covered the Maker Faire Prague.
With the purpose of supporting the teachers from Central Bohemia and extend the benefits to all teachers in the country for that matter, SIC is seeking to certified a number of teachers from Central Bohemia with the method of Maker Fundamentals from August to November, and accredit such method by the Ministry of Education working in collaboration with the Educational Training Institute of Central Bohemia (VISK).