PF target robotics kit earns medals and impacts students – 06/25/2023 – Politics

Nationally famous in the early 1990s as the birthplace of the then first lady of the country, Rosane Collor, the city of Canapi, in the hinterland of Alagoas, has returned to the news in recent months for being one of the targets of investigation of embezzlement public funds in the purchase of robotics kits for municipal schools in the state.

A report by the CGU (Controladoria-Geral da União) pointed to a loss of at least R$ 4.2 million to the public coffers in contracts for the acquisition of such equipment, financed with a parliamentary amendment by the mayor, deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL ).

The mayor of Canapi, Vinicius Lima (PP), elected with the name Vinícius Filho de Zé Hermes on the ballot, taking advantage of the strength of his father, a local chief who has already held the position, is from the same party as Lira, with whom he is a faithful ally .

Unlike other municipalities in Alagoas that received funds from the same program but that have not yet started using robotics kits, such as União dos Palmares and Maravilha, Canapi incorporated the little robots into the daily life of the public network at the beginning of the 2022 school year.

It received 390 kits and uses them at all school levels, and in various subjects, in its 28 schools and 5 nurseries. Seeking to stay away from suspicions of corruption in bids, the school community seeks to take advantage of the benefits of the new activity.

The municipality of 17,000 inhabitants created the position of robotics coordinator, occupied by former IT technician, former physical education teacher and amateur bassist Geneson Barbosa Alves.

Like the teachers, he received training to operate the kits and started to carry out recycling with teachers and activities that incorporate the equipment.

In a step further, in August last year, Alves took 16 students, divided into five teams, to the state stage of the Brazilian Robotics Olympiad, organized by Unicamp, Instituto Federal do RN, Universidade Federal do RN and Sesi, as support and sponsorship universities and public institutions.

Canapi’s delegation returned to the hinterland full of medals.

At level 1 (for students from the 3rd to 8th grades of elementary school), teams from the rural school Divina Pastora were in second and third place overall, in addition to winning extra prizes in the Dedication and Maker categories. A team from the João Vieira Maciel school placed fifth overall and took extra prizes for Best Public School and Programming.

At level 2 (8th and 9th grades), a team from Divina Pastora finished eighth overall and won the extra Maker award, and another from João Vieira Maciel won the Best public school category.

TURTLE ROBOT

Located in the village of Capiá da Igrejinha, 25 km from the center of Canapi and close to the BR-423 road, the Divina Pastora school has a simple structure. The facilities were organized and clean when the reporter visited the place, without an appointment, on June 13.

The students had just taken the theoretical exams for the OBR state stage — soon some of them will travel again to this year’s practical tournament in Maceió. In the three available internet points, the signal did not work – which does not interfere with the use of robotics kits, which do not depend on connection.

The director, Cristina Oliveira, hurriedly gathered the students who won prizes at the local and state Olympics, who showed their medals and trophies and told of their excitement about the robots. Eduardo, 9 years old, in 4th grade, said he loved building the structures and working with the sensors.

Professor Ronelma Serafim explained the impact that the equipment had on the local reality. “It was all very new, and at first what is new is scary. But it has worked out very well, the students identify with each other and play and learn at the same time.”

She explained one of the practical applications of robotics: in the initial classes, she separates syllables associated with colors and programs the little robot to identify the correct combinations through chromatic sensors.

Coordinator Geneson Alves remembered others: at a science fair, to teach about the influence of the moon on the orientation of turtles at birth, a teacher programmed the robot to emulate a turtle, which was guided by light sensors.

The same functionality was used to create aid devices for the hearing and visually impaired (in the latter case, with sound sensors).

“It’s fantastic, because it opens up horizons, they can travel with these tools. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever used in 11 years teaching”, said math teacher José Joaquim, who led one of the winning classes at OBR in Maceió.

Geneson Alves, who was designated by the City Hall to monitor the CGU’s efforts in the city, complains about the single emphasis on suspicions of corruption in the purchase of kits.

“Robotics didn’t come to disturb, it came to help. If it turns out that someone did something wrong in the purchase, as the police suspect, let that someone pay for it. The damn thing is that they only see one side of the coin, but I’m interested take advantage of the good side.”

His next goal, he says, is for Canapi students to appear in the digital magazine Mundo Robotica, OBR’s official vehicle.

MOTIVATION AND COGNITION

Those responsible for the Brazilian Robotics Olympiad welcome both the case of Canapi and the use of technology regardless of the structure of the schools.

“I will not go into the merits of the acquisition, but we were happy to see public schools participating, and the people from Canapi stood out, it was the municipality that drew the most attention, because it is very far from the capital [255 km de Maceió]”, reported the state coordinator of OBR, Mozart Alves Júnior.

“Even with simpler kits than some teams, being there was a huge motivation for the students, which was reflected in the effort and dedication. students are motivated”, said Alves Júnior, a professor at the Cesmac university in Alagoas, where he leads the robotics nucleus and the technological innovation center.

General coordinator of the OBR, professor Cintia Kimie Aihara, from the Colégio Técnico de Campinas, maintained by Unicamp, said that playful work with technology stimulates cognition regardless of the equipment, and that infrastructure is not the most important thing.

Speaking in thesis, as he does not know the kits of the programs in question, he stated: “To work on the development of computational thinking, you don’t even need kits. The use of technology in general is welcome for the new generations, who are much more high tech, have the need to use these materials, and this naturally helps with learning”.

INVESTIGATION

The CGU examined two federal government contracts, signed during the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), with resources from parliamentary amendments, via a Ministry of Education program, for the purchase of kits, support material and teacher training.

In total, Canapi allocated BRL 7.4 million to the company Megalic, BRL 5.7 million of which in 2022 – money from the so-called rapporteur amendment indicated by Lira. The use of the Lira amendment was revealed by the newspaper O Globo.

Megalic, from Maceió, belongs to the father of a councilor from the Lira political group. The investigations began with a report by the Sheet. A direct aide to Lira was the subject of a search and seizure warrant by the PF in the case.

All involved deny wrongdoing. The Municipality of Canapi said that Megalic presented the lowest bid price, which “occurred within strict legality”.

Megalic claims that it is able to build the kits, denies that there was an overprice and says that all contracts were based on technical parameters from the MEC.

The PF sent the investigation to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) after finding documents with references to Arthur Lira and a list of payments linked to the name “Arthur”. Lira claims that he has “absolutely nothing to do with what is happening; everyone is responsible for their CPF”.