MOOC - "Digital Education Laboratories: Active Learning Scenarios"

The Directorate-General for Education (DGE), as part of the Digital Education Laboratories (LED) initiative, made available the 3rd edition of the online training course "Digital Education Laboratories: Active Learning Scenarios," in MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) format, which featured updated resources.

The MOOC was designed as a support course for schools, accompanying the school year. Besides its training component, it served as a space for consultation and interaction, where participants could revisit content, share practices, and submit scenarios or implementations resulting from their pedagogical activity.

In Workshop 5 – STEM Activities in the Classroom, two teachers from Agrupamento de Escolas da Maia, involved in the "Digital for Active Education" Eramus + project, presented the work: "Monitoring and Maintenance of a Pond with micro:bit and Arduino. Other teachers from different schools also participated, showcasing various pedagogical works.

The students identified a real-world problem in the school's pond: water evaporation during warmer months harmed the living organisms and required replenishment using tap water, which incurred both environmental and financial costs. They proposed a sustainable solution involving the reuse of rainwater and the construction of an automatic alert and regulation system utilizing micro:bit and Arduino. Throughout the process, the students faced and overcame technical challenges, tested prototypes, and ultimately built a functional model (maquette), which they then shared with the school community.