Panama is experiencing a coeducational awakening and is taking great strides in robotics

The even methodology creeps into the national educational curriculum as a transversal axis in natural science subjects, expanded in didactic guides in Spanish, social sciences and English, explains Carmen Reyes, National Director of the Department of Curriculum and Educational Technology of the Ministry of Education (Meduca).

These are guides that correspond to the official programs of the Ministry of Education and include elements of the Fundamental Rights to Learning (DFA), transversal axes, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)education for sustainable development (ESD) and STEAM methodology.

The Department of Teacher Training in collaboration with the Specialized University of the Americas (Udelas) is also making progress in training Panamanian technology teachers with an emphasis on robotics.

Robotics engineering is emerging as one of the branches of this profession with great job prospects due to the increasing use of industrial, humanoid and educational robots, autonomous land and air mobile vehicles and home automation facilities, among other technologies, explains the person responsible for the Educational activities of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)-Panama Section.

In the case of the United States, the supply of jobs in robotics and artificial intelligence increased by 500% in the last 90 days of 2022, especially in the segment of industrial robotics, robot.job details.

Faced with this reality, the most important thing for Panama is to arouse the curiosity of the students and the teachers themselves. For Reyes, the best thing about Steam technologies is that students themselves develop, support and defend their projects.

Another of the great achievements that Meduca attributes to itself in this journey is the promotion of gender equality with high participation of students and teachers. “There are no limitations in a state project if there is a will. We broke paradigms and eradicated the thought that they can’t,” confirms the national director of Curriculum and Educational Technology.

experts from IEEE-Panama In the education sector, improvements have also been made to K-12 curricula to include new robotics-related subjects identified as STEAM subjects, such as science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. With regard to the World Robotics Olympiad, Panama also coordinated the study plan with the maritime graduation.

Internet of Things (IoT) applications and the emergence of Industry 4.0 are driving the incorporation of new robotics, control and automation technologies in agriculture, manufacturing, food processing, logistics, mining and others. More specialists must be able to meet the research, production, maintenance and operation needs of these products,” said Iván Armuelles, outgoing vice president of the Joint Chapter of the Robotics and Automation Society and the Control Systems Society (AS&CSS) and responsible for IEEE-Panama Section Educational Activities.

Armuelle assures that since 2010 there has been a very high interest in robotics in Panama, the implementation of innovations in the commercial manufacturing sector with automated and software-controlled production facilities that have motivated the creation of new related careers such as mechatronics engineering taught in public and private universities in the country.

This year Panama is the scene World Robotics Olympiad. Last year in Germany he took 8th place with children aged 7 and 8. Meduca has dedicated itself to the village task for this occasion, with a robotics calendar starting with regional stages with 14 events. There are nine regional events that bring together 16 education regions, and later five private school events where students from the formal sector can participate.

For this year, Meduca worked to raise awareness among 1,046 teachers nationally where they received training on registration, National Olympiad and World Competition rules, categories and core theme for the 2023 event.

Panama is also involved in the “She’s an Astronaut” collaborative program, a new program linked to the Steam methodology that seeks to select 10 Panamanian girls to participate in the NASA program.

The participants will be trained, equipped with computers and trained through NASA in educational projects aimed at approaching the problem of everyday life. The most important thing is to strengthen their scientific skills, Reyes explains.

This program also seeks to strengthen gender equality, and is aimed at girls aged 11 to 16. It is a very scientific, educational and motivating activity. Profile for 10 girls aged must be students of the official sector, from educational centers located in sensitive areas with difficult access.