Technology is a very broad topic and of crucial importance in the development of students, nowadays. Perhaps this need is not always understood correctly, but an x-ray of the labor market tells us that without it, the possibilities become increasingly limited.
We initiated the 3D Modeling and Printing Contest 4 years ago and from an individual competition we developed it into an inter-school competition, intended for students in the school cycle (5-8).
On December 5th, we met with all the participants at the Oteteleșanu Mansion in Măgurele for the judging and awarding ceremony and we want to thank our hosts from the Institute for Research and Development for Materials Physics.
The AMSP team (Mr. Mădălin Ioniță, Laurențiu Dinu, Florentina Buică, Andrei Groșeanu and Daniela Blebea) welcomed the school students and supported them throughout the entire event and we hope that they offered the little ones, but also the adults, a pleasant experience and a beautiful memory.
Therefore, each participating school was represented at the competition by a team of 3 students, who were registered by their coordinating teacher.
The students thought and designed a project as a team with the theme: creating a 3D object that can be used as a teaching material in one of the classroom lessons.
The variety of projects, their complexity and usefulness impressed us again this year and we would like to thank the little ones for their efforts and passion.
From human DNA to brain structure and Braille projects, to the complexity of the leaf blade structure, atoms, the components of a miniature scooter, types of layers and substrates of the Earth and the tensegrity structure, all the projects pleasantly surprised both us and the jury members.
And since we mentioned the jury, we would like to mention and greet them again in this way:
- Our sponsor FormWerk, who provided the 3 3D printers to the winning teams, from whom we have Yannick Bastian (CEO, Founder and Director of Formwerk) as a guest:
- Iulia Maria Șerban – Club Coordinator & Code Trainer at Code School Clubs, who offered the students on the podium vouchers for a Virtual and Augmented Reality course;
- Emanuela Alexandru – Founder Imprim Center total and participant in the Laser Valley Innovation Bootcamp 2024 event;
- Raluca Constantinescu – ECDL Romania – ICDL Certification trainer with over 10 years of experience in digital literacy programs and a member present at many of our activities;
- Gabriela Lupu – School Inspector from the ILFOV County School Inspectorate, with whom we also had the partnership for the optional curriculum Ora de Ştiut.
At the beginning of the event, after the students arrived with their parents and coordinating teachers, the event was opened by Mădălin Ioniță, Executive Director of the Măgurele Science Park Association, who highlighted several important aspects of encouragement to the competing teams:
,,To permanently exceed the limits, if you want to have a healthy society, you must pay attention to the way you provide education. Be creative, be innovative and do not be afraid of anything! Do not be afraid of failures – we all learn from mistakes – but be careful not to repeat them.”
We continued with a brief introduction to the rules of the Contest, with each team having 5 minutes to present and 5 minutes for the jury to ask questions, and the students to answer them.
Below, you can find a collage of the projects that were presented and the final ranking following the jury’s deliberation:
1st Place: ARC Metropolitan School;
2nd Place: Explore 100 School;
3rd Place: Ioan Bădescu School;
4th Place: Gymnasium School no. 311;
5th Place: Horia Hulubei High School, Măgurele;
6th Place: Adrian Păunescu School;
7th Place: School no. 1 Dărăști;
8th Place: Ion Vișoiu School, Chitila;
9th Place: School no. 1 Ciorogârla.
Some testimonials:
“The proposed competition is extremely interesting because it challenges students to exceed their limits, to learn new things and above all, you have facilitated the possibility of creating a product thought up and designed by them. The physical meeting at the headquarters was extremely pleasant and beneficial because they had the opportunity to obtain the prototype of the product they created” – coordinating teacher
“At this moment I am glad that there are still people involved, motivated and happy to work with the students, whether big or small. Thank you for everything” – coordinating teacher
“Yesterday was a day with a super great experience. My team and I were spoiled by designing and printing our first keychains with our name. But the coolest thing was when Laurențiu started printing the first parts of our project. We were excited about how it would look and if the parts would fit together. We kept watching the printers and we didn’t miss taking all kinds of leftovers as a souvenir. The wait wasn’t that long because we sat down to model all kinds of objects again in Tinkercad. The result of the project was very good, we still have to work, but we are on the right track. Thank you very much Laurențiu for your guidance and patience. We know we were noisy and energetic. And thank you to the entire team at MSP for their hospitality and making us feel at home.” – participating student
Congratulations to all the participating teams and we are excitedly waiting for next year’s edition!
