What is an MIT student doing at a high school in the Lamine Yamal neighborhood?

BarcelonaHe walks down the hall and if you close your eyes and just listen to the comments they make, he could be a real football star or one of them. influencer with thousands of teenage followers. "Daniel, handsome, how are you, man?", says a student of about fourteen, as if they were lifelong friends. The scene is repeated with small variations, a handshake, a hug with quick pats on the back and all kinds of greetings more typical of an American movie than of a Catalan high school. The protagonist who generates so much expectation could be Lamine Yamal, since we are in a high school in his neighborhood (in Rocafonda, Mataró), but it is Daniel, pronounced with an American accent.

He is one of the few brilliant students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who has won one of the places in the Global Teaching Labs, an initiative in which students from this research giant travel to different countries to promote the passion for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in secondary schools.

Daniel has been in Catalonia for less than a month and works as a teacher (or assistant) at the Àngela Bransuela School Institute, but he admits that it has been too short. "Since I was little I have always liked technology and I thought it was a good opportunity to, perhaps, be able to transmit this passion to younger people and for them to get hooked like I did," he explains enthusiastically. He expresses himself in Spanish because I already spoke to him before coming, but the three weeks at the Mataró institute have been like a master's degree for him to learn at least some Catalan. "In high school I learned French and I have the feeling that Catalan is a mix between Spanish and French, so it is a little easier for me to understand it than another language," he admits.

EduCaixa has been collaborating with MIT for six years to coordinate the arrival of students from Boston University to ten institutes or schools in the metropolitan area. Now, however, another component has been added to this combination: the MIT student stay programme has been aligned with Catalan centres that have the FAIG (Doing to Learn, Imagining Globally) programme of the Department of Education underway to further hammer the nail home.

Broadly speaking, FAIG has the mission of supporting schools in project-based learning. maker –learning by doing things that can be applied to real problems or needs in their environment– and, to do so, provides participating centers with the machines and material necessary to set up a digital manufacturing laboratory.

"One of the things I had to do before leaving Boston was learn how the machines they have here at the institute worked and the programs they use because they are somewhat different from the ones I knew. It was also refreshing for me to see other programs and other ways of working," explains Daniel. He explains that he is studying physics at MIT and, therefore, having no knowledge of education, before coming he also did some sessions "on how to get students to be comfortable with the digital manufacturing process." engaged", that is, how to get them motivated, have fun and, as a result, learn.

From a wedge through the door to a little house for the birds"

In this way, Daniel has spent most of his stay in the laboratory at the Mataronense institute. The space is mainly used by students who do technology and are receiving training to use the laser cutter, the 3D printer and the embroidery machine. With this knowledge, they are receiving orders from the same school. For example, now a special education group has drawn some logos and the group of students in the laboratory must see how to design them with easy-to-read letters and see what material to use so that they can be used to label all the classrooms in the center.

Another assignment is to make wedges for the doors, but there are also robotics sessions in which obstacles must be overcome by a robot and moments of recreation in which the students themselves, always with supervision, can come to design things that they think the school needs. For example, a student thought that the class draft needed a cover and designed it with a 3D printer. And a girl from 3rd year wanted to make a house for the birds in the yard from scratch with wood.

Stay home teacher

Beyond the inspiration that the MIT student can give to the ESO students, an important part of the program is the cultural exchange that university students like Daniel experience. Unlike other cases in which students stay overnight in an apartment or in a space shared with other classmates, in his case the immersion was total, since he went to live at Rita's house, one of the teachers at the institute. This has allowed the future MIT physicist to go to see a performance of the shepherds or to visit various places in the country on weekends to learn a little more about Catalan culture and language.

"I shouldn't say it, but it's true that one of the things I've liked most about coming here is the food," says Daniel, laughing, who also assures that one of the things that has fulfilled him the most has nothing to do with physics or education. "It has been very rewarding to create a relationship with the students. I think that apart from technology, I could teach them other things about life. They have explained many things to me about their daily lives and, although I don't know everything, I have tried to help them. With some of them, it is almost as if we were friends."