In my tech classes, I can't do the same kind of projects because I don't have helpers. I am alone with my students. What I try to do is identify which of my students have more knowledge, whether it's about T-shirt printing, laser cutters, or coding. These students become the mentors for the class. They are the ones who will probably solve some of the problems that arise. I focus on them and try to give them more insights about the 3D printers we have at school, the laser cutters we use, and other tools. I empower them to become the mentors for the year.
However, once they finish the tech project and apply to university, they move on. Some of them come back to help, like Joel, who visited last year. He was an inspiration to the rest of the students and helped me a lot with technical issues.
In terms of hackathons, we do something similar to what we're doing here, but we compress it into three days. We try to fit five weeks of workshops into just three days, involving 11 schools, 11 teachers, and 140 students who have never met before and probably won't interact afterward. It’s a significant challenge. We identify mentors, some of whom are tech project students who have worked on similar projects and can help the younger students. The mentors are usually older than the students they are helping. Essentially, we try to replicate what we're doing here, but in a very condensed timeframe of three days.
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