A team made up of representatives of the teaching innovation group XuvenCiencia and the Faculty of Business Administration and Management – both from the Lugo Campus of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) -, the University of Porto, Porto Business School, the public high schools Lucus Augusti and Ollos Grandes (Lugo) and Xelmírez II (Santiago), as well as the Professional School of Valongo and the Association Tempos Brilantes – Escola On of Portugal have launched an initiative to promote the development of technological entrepreneurship actions for Bachelaurette, STEMBach and Vocational Training students from Galicia (an Spanish autonomous community) and Portugal.
This TEMP of the Phereclos project has been launched as a pilot initiative. We have laid the foundations for a school network that can work transversally on concepts of entrepreneurial culture, scientific and technological innovation, territorial awareness and sustainable development, involving secondary schools and vocational training, universities and other organisations and entities dedicated to the design of educational projects for the third millennium.
Common history and culture
Galicia and Northern Portugal are two areas in Western Europe with a common history dating back to prehistoric times, a shared material and immaterial culture and similar challenges and concerns in today’s world. Portuguese and Galician are two sister languages that were one and the same until well into the Middle Ages and that provide unbeatable conditions and an opportunity for communication and the exchange of experiences, without the need to resort to third languages that function as lingua franca.
A novel network
The first TEMP period of the Phereclos project has served to establish, first of all, a novel network of collaboration between educational organisations of different nature. On the one hand, between the universities of Santiago de Compostela and Porto, which are reference centres in the Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion. There has also been a new step in the consolidated partnership among two old friends: the Júnior University of Porto and XuvenCiencia, both members of Eucu.net, the European network for children universities. The Porto Business School and the Faculty of Business of the Campus of Lugo of the USC, which has just launched a degree in Business and Technology, have started a fruitful and lasting collaboration within this project. On the other hand, the higher education organisations are in contact with secondary schools in Galicia and Portugal, which in turn are also weaving new links between them, on both sides of the border established by the river Minho.
Starting the project
Galician students participated during the month of April 2021 in three online workshops developed by Porto Business School in collaboration with the Faculty of Business Administration of the Lugo Campus of the USC. In order to carry out this activity, the partners implemented a specific remote teaching platform on the Escola-on website for the development of the entrepreneurship workshops and which will also serve for the future phases of the TEMP Phereclos project.
The STEM factor
Afterwards, the teachers from the Galician secondary schools and the Portuguese school received two scientific experimentation kits designed by XuvenCiencia in their centres and also participated in a distance training programme given by researchers from the Lugo Campus of the USC. Thus, this TEMP_1 of the Phereclos project allows the transference of technological innovation and know-how thanks to the Fotometrix and Aqualab scientific experimentation kits oriented to secondary school classrooms. We have opted for proposals that have an impact on some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), so that entrepreneurial culture and scientific innovation can be combined in a world facing challenges such as health, climate change or food security.
Beyond the TEMP’s borders
The relaxation of restrictions due to the covid pandemic has allowed the programme of activities foreseen for the second TEMP period to be exceeded. The high schools were keen from the outset to be able to carry out face-to-face activities that would allow for a more organic interaction between all parts of the project. From this desire, two exchanges were born to develop the TEMP activity plan, which took place in the cities of Porto and Lugo in September.
Trip to Porto
Firstly, a group of 35 students from the three Galician high schools travelled to Porto on September, the 2nd and 3rd. They enjoyed an on-site workshop at the Porto Business School, as well as entrepreneurship programmes at the Fundação da Juventude, another Phereclos’ partner. This training programme was the beginning of students working in groups to develop technology-based business ideas.
The Galician group also could visit the Museu de Historia Natural e da Ciência and the Ferreira da Silva Laboratory at the University of Porto. Finally, Galician students got to know the city of Porto and its riverside (Ribeira).
Trip to Lugo
Three weeks later, Portuguese and Galician students visit the Lugo Campus of the USC and met each other on September, the 23rd, 24th and 25th. This trip to Lugo started with the arrival of a 24 people group (22 teenagers and two teachers) from the Escola Profissional de Valongo – Profival. Portuguese students visited the Science and Veterinary Faculties, the Rof Codina Veterinary Hospital and the Galician Pedagogical Museum of the Lucus Augusti Institute of Lugo.
Innovative business ideas
Next day, the students of the Galician high schools involved in this project presented their innovative projects born from all the work developed by the TEMP in a joint session at the Faculty of Business Administration of the Lugo Campus of the USC. As they got inspired by training in entrepreneurial culture and XuvenCiencia’s scientific kits, they chose business ideas with environmental concern, aimed to re-use, reduce and recycle items such as aluminium packaging or cans, and focussed on climate change. Then, both groups from Portugal and Galicia attended an on- site session on the subject of ‘Canvas as a strategic design tool’.
They could as well participate in talks with the CEOs of the companies Innogando and LexDigo. Elio López is the head of the Luguese company Innogando, which provides services for livestock farmers and animal welfare, and Leticia Seara runs LexDigo, an initiative in the field of Social Sciences.
In the afternoon, there was a visit to the headquarters of the technology company AMSLab, in the city of Lugo. AMSLab is a company leader in the field of quality analysis solutions in areas as diverse as textiles, food, veterinary medicine, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and toys.
Inside the European Night of Researchers
From 18.00 onwards, students from the four high schools were able to join the workshops, demos and presentations organised in the Vello Cárcere (a former jail) in Lugo by XuvenCiencia and the AgroMar Researchers’ Association of the Lugo Campus on the occasion of G-Night, European Night of Researchers, the simultaneous celebration throughout Europe of the Night of Researchers. Two of these workshops, Experimentos de física (Physics experiments) and Faz un telemóvel do tempo da pedra (Make a mobile phone from the stone age), were under the charge of teachers and researchers from the University of Porto.
Teenagers and teachers from the Profival of Valongo and the University of Porto had the opportunity on the morning of Saturday September, the 25th, before heading back to Portugal, to walk through the historic centre of the city and its three World Heritage Sites (the Roman wall, the cathedral and the Primitive Way to Santiago), as well as to visit some of the green spaces of a city capital of the Terras do Miño, which has been declared a Biosphere Reserve by Unesco.
Highlights and pictures
- Implementation of a specific remote teaching platform on the Escola-on website for the development of the entrepreneurship workshops and which will also serve for the future phases of the TEMP Phereclos project.
- Transfer of technological innovation and know-how thanks to the Fotometrix and Aqualab scientific experimentation kits oriented to secondary school classrooms. We have opted for proposals that have an impact on some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), so that entrepreneurial culture and scientific innovation can be combined in a world facing challenges such as health, climate change or food security.
- On-site workshop at the Porto Business School.
- Entrepreneurship programmes at the Fundação da Juventude.
- Tour of the Museu de Historia Natural e da Ciência and Visit to the Ferreira da Silva Laboratory, both of the University of Porto.
- Galician students get to know the city of Porto and its riverside (Ribeira).
- The students of the Galician high schools present their innovative projects born from all the work developed by the TEMP in a joint session at the Faculty of Business Administration of the Lugo Campus of the USC.
- Visit to the headquarters of the technology company AMSLab, in the city of Lugo.
- Participation in the workshops and activities of the G-Night, European Night of Researchers.
