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3rd Racecar Challenge

The competition, to be hosted by Pierce – American College of Greece on April 13, 2024, in collaboration with Mathisi and with the support of the MIT Club of Greece, is based on the middle-school race car program miniRACECAR designed and presented by the Beaver Works Summer Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To participate in the competition, Gymnasio and 1^st Lykeio students must successfully complete at least the first 3 Labs of BWSI’s miniRACECAR course, which they can attend online at no charge during the 2023/2024 school year. The miniRACECAR course is offered in English. All students who registered for the program will be able to complete the course, as well as the Python Core course also offered by BWSI, until July 29, 2024. Students  who  will complete at least the first 3 Labs of miniRacecar by July 29, 2024 and/or the Python Core course will receive a certificate from BWSI, as will the teachers who mentored them through the course(s).

The program’s objective is to provide students with an opportunity to work in teams, to acquire knowledge in a project-based manner, to strengthen their skills in programming (Python), robotics and technology, and to develop skills such as problem solving, creativity and teamwork.

The team which will win the 3rd Racecar Challenge will represent Greece in the international competition that will be held at the Beaver Works Summer Institute in the summer 2024. The winning team will have the additional opportunity to attend the last week of BWSI’s program immediately preceding the final challenge. Boarding and traveling expenses of the winning team and its accompanying teacher are not covered by the organizers or BWSI. If the winning team cannot travel to MIT’s campus the first week of August, they will be able to attend the last week of BWSI’s camp and to participate in BWSI’s final challenge virtually. 

For more information and registration, please consult Racecar Challenge’s site here.

2nd Racecar Challenge

The competition, hosted by Pierce – American College of Greece on April 29, 2023, in collaboration with Mathisi and with the support of the MIT Club of Greece, was based on the middle-school race car program miniRACECAR designed and offered by the Beaver Works Summer Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To participate in the competition, Gymnasio and 1^st Lykeio students had to successfully complete at least the first 3 Labs of BWSI’s miniRACECAR course, which they could attend online at no charge during the 2022/2023 school year. The miniRACECAR course was offered in English. All students who registered for the program will be able to complete the course, as well as the Python Core course also offered by BWSI, until July 31, 2023. Students  who  will complete at least the first 3 Labs of miniRacecar by July 31, 2023 and/or the Python Core course will receive a certificate from BWSI evidencing their having completed the course, as will the teachers who mentored them through the course(s).

The program’s objective was to provide students with an opportunity to work in teams, to acquire knowledge in a project-based manner, to strengthen their skills in programming (Python), robotics and technology, and to develop skills such as problem solving, creativity and teamwork.

The team which won 2nd Racecar Challenge, Racedrifters from the 8^th Gymnasium of Halandri, will represent Greece in the international competition that will be held at the Beaver Works Summer Institute in the summer 2023. The winning team will have the additional opportunity to attend the last week of BWSI’s program immediately preceding the final challenge. Boarding and traveling expenses of the winning team and its accompanying teacher are not covered by the organizers or BWSI. If the winning team cannot travel to MIT’s campus the first week of August, they will be able to attend the last week of BWSI’s camp and to participate in BWSI’s final challenge virtually.

The 2^nd Racecar Challenge received the approval of the Institute of Educational Policy (IEP) in February 2023.

For more information, please consult Racecar Challenge’s site here.

1st Racecar Challenge

Together with Pierce – The American College of Greece and Junior Achievement Greece, Mathisi announced the Panhellenic Robotics Competition Racecar Challenge for Gymnasio students in Greece.

The competition, hosted by Pierce – American College of Greece on June 18, 2022, was based on the middle-school race car program miniRACECAR designed and offered by the Beaver Works Summer Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To participate in the competition, students had first to successfully complete at least the first 3 Labs of BWSI’s miniRACECAR course, which they could attend online at no charge between January 2022 and June 2022. The miniRACECAR course was offered in English. Students  who  completed at least the first 3 Labs of miniRacecar by July 31, 2022 received a certificate from BWSI evidencing their having completed the course, as did the teachers who mentored them through the course. The course could be fully completed either while assembling the physical car if available, or, in the absence of the physical car, through BWSI’s miniRACECAR and course software simulation. The competition however was based on the physical car.

The program’s objective was to provide Gymnasio students with an opportunity to work in teams, to acquire knowledge in a project-based manner, to strengthen their skills in programming, robotics and technology, regardless of prior experience or knowledge, and to develop skills such as problem solving, creativity and teamwork.

The team that won the Greek competition Racecar Challenge represented Greece in the international competition that was held at the Beaver Works Summer Institute on August7, 2022. That team also virtually attended the last week of BWSI’s program immediately preceding the final challenge. (BWSI’s invitation was originally for an on-campus participation in both the final challenge and the preceding week of BWSI’s summer program. Owing to the continuing uncertainty created by the coronavirus, Beaver Works Summer Institute had announced  in early 2022 that it would not host students on-campus for its 2022 summer programs.)

A total of 86 students representing 12 schools throughout Greece attended this program. Racecar Challenge received the approval of the Institute of Educational Policy (IEP) in January 2022.

STEM Modules Development

Drawing on its resources and experience, and in collaboration with local educators, Mathisi is developing a subset of the modules it had offered in its STEM camp with the support of MIT JWEL.

Educational focus

• STEM Core,
• Cross-disciplinary,
• Project-Based,
• Collaborative,
• Linked to national curriculum,
  Real world applications (within the framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals).

Content design
Each module follows a sequence of sessions which reflects the project-based and cross-disciplinary approach we have adopted throughout our work.

Each session is comprised of a combination of i) “hard knowledge” corresponding to specific content of the national curriculum, ii) hands-on activities where that knowledge is used or experimented, and iii) an assessment tool for the student and teacher to assess whether the knowledge of that session has been understood in the manner that allows the student to use it going forward.

Development
Beyond Mathisi’s prototyping, the modules development includes reviewing, teacher play-testing and in-class testing in collaboration with teachers and educators.