Educational robotics at CEAP: from programming logic to robotics tournament
Maker Course in 2023 and Robotics and Innovation in 2024, with a project exhibition open to the community and a pathway to the FIRST LEGO League MASTERPIECE season.
CEAP — Educational Assistance Center for Professional Training
CEAP is a non-profit non-governmental organization, founded in 1985, that operates as a free vocational school, annually offering professional training and qualification courses for young people aged 10 to 18.
In addition to technical-professional training, CEAP focuses on the human development of its beneficiaries based on two pillars built over nearly four decades: personalized education, which recognizes each beneficiary as a unique individual, and family involvement in the training process.
A course, not a one-off workshop
CEAP was looking for a technology component that went beyond a demonstrative class. The institution wanted young people to learn teamwork, inclusion, innovation, and discovery — and to internalize that learning matters more than winning.
Three cycles, real progression
Maker Course — 48h
Five classes, three-hour lessons once a week, from March to June. The pathway covered entrepreneurship, creativity, and design through the Luminária project; 3D modeling in Tinkercad; laser cutting machine operation; Makey Makey board integrated with Scratch for game creation; Arduino with digital and analog ports, potentiometer, and LDR sensor; and a final automation project, from problem identification to physical prototype and pitch.
Maker Course, second edition — 56h
Five classes, 56 hours, three-and-a-half-hour lessons once a week, from August to December. This cycle was designed around a single object that explored various techniques: young people modeled the pieces of a tic-tac-toe game in Tinkercad, cut the corresponding board on the CNC laser machine, and through this, practically understood the difference between modeling in three dimensions and cutting in two axes.
Then came Makey Makey integrated with Scratch, the Luminária project with basic electronics and costing, and Arduino with an ultrasonic sensor, LCD, servo motor, and temperature sensor. The culmination was an automation project exhibition open to the community, with prototypes displayed on the last day of the semester.
Robotics and Innovation — 62h
Five classes, three-hour-and-forty-minute lessons once a week, from March to June. The pathway began on the Open Roberta platform, with action palettes, sensors, and control, and programming challenges involving conditionals and variables. It progressed to LEGO kits, with motors, touch, ultrasonic, and light sensors, and base robot assembly. It covered 3D modeling and laser cutting, with the produced part related to championship engineering and design requirements.
The second half of the 2024 course was dedicated to the FIRST LEGO League Challenge MASTERPIECE season: rules, research, official mat, mission strategy, and autonomous robot development by each team. The cycle concluded with an internal tournament among the classes.
Activities took place at CEAP and AFESU's Veleiros unit.
Attendance and dropout measured class by class
| Cycle | People Served | Workload | Average Attendance | Dropout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maker Course — 1st sem 2023 | 149 | 48h | 83,73% | 19,0% |
| Maker Course — 2nd sem 2023 | 108 | 56h | 84,36% | 17,0% |
| Robotics and Innovation — 1st sem 2024 | 169 | 62h | 82,10% | 14,21% |
In the 2023 second semester closing evaluation, answered by 63 young people, 84.1% rated the course 9 or 10, and 85.7% rated the teachers' classes 9 or 10. No grade was below 6. Among the content, the favorites were the Luminária project (36.5%) and Arduino in Tinkercad (27%).
The workload increased with each cycle, from 48h to 56h and then 62h, and the dropout rate decreased in the same order: 19%, 17%, and 14.21%. In 2023.1, a large portion of dropouts occurred shortly after the announcement of selected young people for the institution's technical course — a factor external to the course, identified because dropout is recorded with a stated reason.
Robotics with progression and competition
Complete track, not just a workshop
166 total hours across three cycles, with real content progression. Measured approval: 84.1% of scores 9 or 10 for the course, given by the young people themselves in an anonymous form.
Competitive Robotics
Mastery of FIRST LEGO League season, mat, missions, and tournament organization.
Multiplatform
Open Roberta, LEGO, Scratch, Makey Makey, Arduino, Tinkercad, modeling, and laser cutting.
Measured Management
Class-by-class attendance and evasion with identified causes, used to redesign the subsequent cycle.
In the words of participants
Testimonial from someone who experienced the robotics project at CEAP with Somai.
Technology integrated into education since 1990
In the market since 1990, Somai specializes in integrating new technologies into education. Technical-pedagogical excellence is supported by a multidisciplinary team of pedagogues, teachers, psychologists, graphic designers, administrators, programmers, and technicians, who work to deliver high-impact educational technology solutions.
More than 35 years, 2,500 schools served, 25,000 educators involved, and 2.1 million students impacted.
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