Created to help the coal industry in southern Santa Catarina, the Satc (Coal Miners’ Relief Society) has become a benchmark in the technical training of professionals as well as in the education of citizens committed to society. In addition, he has become an example of innovative teaching that seeks to teach through practice.

Robotics is gaining more and more space in education in the age of technology and innovation – Photo: reproduction NDTV/ND

Dean Carlos António Ferreira says learning by doing is a way to learn deeper. “This training is longer, the student really learns this knowledge much better than a purely theoretical discipline. But this is a huge problem, generations and generations have learned this only through theory, memorizing the content, but we must take an important step towards this change. This is what Satc is working on to change the way we teach,” emphasizes the Dean of UniSatc.

Caring for good learning that starts from childhood. In the classes on applied technologies, students from the first to the fifth year are immersed in the virtual universe of the metaverse. This discipline forced students to move into a new reality, learning about entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainable development.

The Metaverse project was divided into five phases. “The first year was responsible for the cryptocurrency, which is the currency within the metaverse, the second year was for the products that will be sold in the metaverse store that they create, the third year was for programming the metaverse, so when everything is ready they start programming, the fourth year for creating an avatar and a fifth year for the layout,” explains teacher Caroline Pickler Machado Silvano.

But all this is taking into account the age group. This project uses age appropriate software where learning goes hand in hand with play. Alice Rock Isidoro is a fifth year student and is already inside this new virtual universe. “The Metaverse is the same place as real life, only in a virtual one, and here there is the same thing, but there are others that are a little more adapted to the Internet,” the student explains.

In the robotics room, the building blocks here have a function far beyond the scope of the game. Professor Franciele Alves says the discipline has helped in many ways. “Robotics helps students a lot to develop logical thinking, creativity, criticality, group work, which they will use in the labor market. And over the years, the level of work also increases. It’s like a game, it levels up, they learn and strengthen it. Thanks to robotics, they learn how important group work is,” explains the professor of applied technologies.

There are robots that have already left the class and went to the competition. A group of students from Satz became the champion of the state stage of the Brazilian Olympiad in Robotics. They programmed and developed a robot capable of climbing obstacles and walking in straight lines. “They have to solve difficult problems, and this prepares them for life. At the end of the day, it’s very interesting to get a feel for how to solve problems and face challenges,” explains Guilherme Cardoso Cruz, professor of robotics at Satc.

It took one hundred days of preparation and research, involving science, technology, and a lot of logical reasoning, to assemble and program the robot to participate in the OBR. It was a way to put into practice everything they learned in robotics classes and as preparation for the job market. This is what Vitor Tinelli, a 2nd year student at Satc High School, compares to. “The job market is very difficult, very difficult, and Satz has always been in jail for this, for introducing the labor market in a school with a lot of projects, OBR is an example of this,” he emphasizes.

Stimulating logical thinking is one of the benefits of robotics. Photo: NDTV/ND reproduction

If in 1959 Satc – Sociedade de Assistência aos Trabalhadores do Coal was engaged in providing assistance to workers in the coal industry, today this task is much broader. This also includes Satc’s commitment to reducing environmental impact, a just energy transition process, qualified education and the development of ideas that can help society.

This is the case of a project developed by the field of electronics, which brings to life a proposal to save energy inside the home and help people with disabilities or reduced mobility. “The idea is for them to see something that they don’t see every day in other schools, especially in technical schools, to start encouraging them to choose this technical area, which is usually out of reach for most students,” emphasizes Professor Marcelo Marcos. Amoroso from the discipline of Domotica.

This dynamic, which includes many practical exercises, opens the eyes of the labor market, which is looking for good specialists. Many students have already been hired before the end of the professional course, and 99% of graduates have already been hired. Professor Wagner Fernandez Zeferino accompanied these years of change.

“As part of this whole evolution of the technical school, there has been investment in laboratories for a long time, in a technical environment, it was all focused on the work area, so that our students who join Satc for a technical course are ready to work. market, this is our main goal to prepare students for the labor market,” the physics teacher assesses.

At a time when efforts are underway to achieve a Just Energy Transition, the coal industry that inspired the creation of SATC is leaving a legacy to a society that is increasingly concerned about a skilled workforce, the formation of citizens committed to the environment, with the accompanying new technologies and going out into the world. young people who care about the future and where they live.