Eighty high school students divided into eight groups attended robotics and electronics workshops over the course of March and April. They were working on the projects that were presented on Tuesday at a virtual fair held via the Google Meet platform.  

This was the second phase of the project Science Overcomes Prejudice organized by SPARK and supported by the Embassy of the USA to BiH. 

In those challenging times, and respecting the social distance, the students manage to acquire new skills. This is supported by the fact that 75% of participants graded their knowledge of the Arduino platform with A or B compared to the start of the project. 98% of them gave us the highest grades when asked to rate overall experience during the project duration. 

We must not forget to praise the engagement and support of the professors and the schools’ principals. Without their full permission, we wouldn’t be able to realize the project at all. 

The implementation of the project was supported by the U.S. Department of State. The Ministry of the Education, Art and Sport of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton also approved the project.

The project start was marked with the donation of the STEM equipment to eight high schools in Mostar. 

Disclaimer:

“This article is on the project Science Overcomes Prejudice, and it was funded by a grant from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State”.

Primary School “Suljo Čilić” Jablanica is the winner of this year’s SPARKreators – state championship in robotics. The competition was held online on Friday, December 18, 2020, and it featured 25 teams.

“I would like to thank all schools – teachers and students – who participated in this year’s SPARKreators. I am thrilled that nothing has affected the quality of the competition, especially heaving in mind that it was held online and in rather specific conditions,” stated Matea Markić Vučić, Head of SPARK School.

General sponsor of the SPARKreators was the Embassy of the Republic of France to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr Sylvan Rigollet, Attaché for Cooperation represented the Embassy at the competition. He stated that one of the vital mission of the French Embassy is to support the projects whose goal is the promotion and development of science. 

Rialda Spahić, Goran Barbir, Boris Crnokić and Anes Hadžiomerović were the jury of the competition. SPARK team stated that they had a challenging task to select the best of the best.

According to them those are the top 10 schools: 

1. Primary School “Suljo Čilić” Jablanica, Jablanica

2. Primary School “Kiseljak”, Kiseljak

2. Primary School “Sveti Sava”, Novi Grad

3. Općina Stari Grad, Sarajevo

4. Primary School fra Stipana Vrljića Sovići, Sovići

5. Primary School “Abdulvehab Ilhamija”, Žepče

6. Primary School “Vladislav Skarić”, Sarajevo

6. Primary School “Han Bila”, Travnik

7. Primary School “Đurđevik”, Živinice

8. First Primary School Bugojno, Bugojno

SPARK and the Franche Embassy have prepared the awards for the winners:

• STEMI hexapod and mBot explorer set + battery – 1st place;
• mBot Ranger Robot Kit and mBot explorer set + battery – 2nd place;
• Makeblock mTiny Coding Kit + mBot explorer set – 3rd place and 
•  mBot explorer set + battery – 4th – 10th place

SPARKreators has gathered 37 schools. Every individual school has participated with a team of up to five students and a professor-mentor. They had a task to prepare a project using mBots.