Students at Herman Faukeliusschool from Middelburg win STEAM Cup challenge with anti-bullying app

By means of: Editorial

Wed Apr 24, 4:22 pm

General

MIDDELBURG – Students from the Herman Faukelius School in Middelburg won the first prize in the national finals of the GoIT STEAM CUP challenge last week. They won with the design of an anti-bullying app. Nice detail: they won this prize on the national anti-bullying day.

And the winner is: ‘You’re safe at school, or YOUSOS’, the app from Joar, Bart, Jorens, Micha, Floris and Femke. These primary school students returned to Walcheren with the largest cup for their cleverly devised app to combat bullying at school. The sixth STEAM Cup final was held in the Media Museum Beeld en Geluid in Hilversum on Friday, April 19. This year for the first time together with goIT, an international program. The challenge: Apply technology to solve a problem in your own neighborhood or community. In recent months, students from the highest groups of primary and secondary education have been working at their own school on an app that fits within one of the UN’s sustainable goals. According to the jury, YOUSOS stood out among nine other well-thought-out apps and presentations. The prize for best presentation went to the Mode for Everyone team from Amsterdam with their app ‘Switch it up’. The ‘green garden app’ from team Caprisun won the prize for most creative app.

STEAM Cup

The STEAM Cup is an initiative of Breens Network and IT Randsteden. It is a national competition for schools in the field of technology education (Science Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathmatics, STEAM for short). The aim of the STEAM Cup is to involve children in coming up with technical solutions for everyday problems. This year, for the first time, it was called the goIT STEAM Cup, a collaboration with the TCS-sponsored global goIT program.

And so it was that more than 1,700 students in 74 classes throughout the Netherlands started working on building an app in recent months. Their teachers were trained to use the goIT program. The students first chose one of the UN sustainability goals and looked for a problem within that theme in their own living environment. The solution for this had to be devised in the form of an app. But how do you get there? They were helped with this through the steps from ‘design thinking’.

The Grand final

The ten most appealing apps were chosen from the entries for the grand final in Hilversum on Friday. There the teams had to present their app in front of a room full of other teams, teachers and other guests. And in front of a three-person jury. That was probably exciting, but all teams gave a nice presentation of their process for building the app. And what creativity they showed! There were apps to make the environment cleaner, ‘because we really don’t think that cans on the street are acceptable’. Apps to feel safe at school and on the street. Apps to help you live healthier and make healthier choices when shopping. An app that ensures that students can get a healthy lunch at school with donations from the neighborhood: ‘we are happy to ensure a full stomach’. And finally, an app that helps you green your own garden, with a function to share green tips with each other.

Happy and proud

The overall winners will soon be VIP guests for a day at TCS in Amsterdam. They can visit the innovation lab there. Like all other teams, they received a box of Micro:bits and a plexiglass plaque to hang on the wall at school. Afterwards, the YOUSOS children are still a bit dazed. “No, we did not expect this, when the prize for the best presentation was awarded, we thought we no longer had a chance. But we are very happy and very proud.”