HackSTEM Project: Movel

Hackstem is an Hackathon event dedicated to finding solutions to promote STEM subjects within students. The challenge introduced was to develop a technological solution to help teachers in the teaching of STEM subjects.

With a team of 4 people from across the globe and from different disciplines, including myself we came up with 'Movel', a technological tool that would allow the representation and mimic of dynamic systems through play.

The core idea of this concept is that, almost any science subject can be explained through a system based on regularities, and interconnection of elements. That applies to many areas such as the solar system, anatomical systems,mechanical systems,  chemistry molecule system, and so on

How to bring the idea to reality: TECH APPLIED

The teacher would have access to a web platform from which to create and edit system models. Then, the model can be launched and students (each one representing an element of the system)

can join with their phones, which will track their position and speed, thus evaluating their accuracy in the representation of the system. When the group of students altogether complete the model, they win the 'game'. There would also be a ranking between schools.

How to make it easy: TECH APPLIED TO ACCESSIBILITY

Teachers should be able to drag and drop the roles in a grid-like screen, thus visualising their position. They can also input the position manually. The movement type/speed shall also be specified, or whether students should follow a movement pattern. An exercise can also have various case situations, or level progressions.

A global library where teachers can post their creations also enables the least creative ones to easily provide quality models. Even STEM professionals, who want to cooperate with the cause, can create and share complex models that may be too difficult for teachers to develop.

How to teach across all subjects: TECH FOR ENDLESS SOLUTIONS

(more less in order from lower grades to upper)

• Basic maths (addition, substraction, multiplication…)

• “2 students are an apple, 3 are oranges. How many fruits are there?”

• Basic geometry

• “Grab your hands and shape a circle”

• Water cycle

• Planets (solar system)

• Represent the solar system, with proportional distance and orbiting speed

• Molecules and atoms

• Relation between protons and electrons, representing historical models of atoms...

• Chemical elements and reactions

• Representing molecules ex. Water requires 1 Helium and 2 oxygen. The same can be applied, evolutively, to more complex cases.

• Physics principles

• Anatomy systems (bones, muscles, circulatory system, digestive system, respiratory system…)

• Mechanical engineering

• Coding by blocks