Educational Robotics Olympiads!
WRO Hellas
Non-profit organization WRO Hellas is the main entity conducting robotics competitions in Greece and South East Europe, as well as the legal National Organizer of World Robot Olympiad in Greece. Founded in 2009, WRO Hellas aims at introducing teachers, students and parents to educational robotics and, more broadly, to the STEM philosophy.
In this framework, we use our robotics contests as leverage in order to ensure that every school is not only willing but also able to take its first steps into STEM, either by enriching its official curriculum or by offering appropriate after-school activities. We do this by creating motives and ways for schools to obtain free infrastructure, by supporting teachers with free, continuous hands-on training, as well as by developing open-access lesson plans for elementary and secondary teachers.
Educational Robotics Competitions
WRO Hellas organizes two separate competitions for all educational levels: the Panhellenic Educational Robotics Competition (October – March) and the WRO Educational Robotics Olympiad (March – July).
The teams that qualify for the Educational Robotics Olympiad – WRO make up the Greek Olympic Mission that represents Greece in the World Robot Olympiad.
Panhellenic Educational Robotics Competition
The Panhellenic Educational Robotics Competition for Primary, Secondary and High School students has been organized for the last 5 years by WRO Hellas with COSMOTE as a strategic partner. The competition is an intense 5-month journey for the educational community across the country, from the announcement of the issues in October to the holding of the final in March.
The Panhellenic Competition has three categories for primary, secondary and high school students, while in 2019 for the first year it introduced a pilot, non-competitive category for Kindergarten children. Different educational goals are set for each category, and therefore different competition criteria.
Educational Robotics Olympiad WRO
The WRO Educational Robotics Olympiad is a qualifying competition, through which those teams that represent our country at the World Robot Olympiad stand out every year.
The WRO Educational Robotics Olympiad has been organized by WRO Hellas since 2009 and follows exactly the educational and competitive standards of the international World Robot Olympiad.
The topics of the competition are translated and announced in Greece in March every year, while the National Final of the WRO Educational Robotics Olympiad is held every July. The winning teams advance to the World Robot Olympiad, which is hosted each year by a different country. The next World Robot Olympiad will be held in Canada in November 2020.
World Robot Olympiad
World Robot Olympiad (WRO) is an extremely important, global event for science, technology and education. WRO brings together children and young people from around the world to help them develop their creativity and problem-solving skills through their involvement in challenging and creative educational robotics challenges.
To participate in the World Robot Olympiad, those interested are invited to form groups of two or three children and participate in the national qualifiers (WRO Educational Robotics Olympiad for Greece). Participating groups are asked to design, build and program a robot that will either be used in track tests (Regular category) or simulate a science related to a specific topic that changes each year.
Development of contests
See the evolution of the participations in the educational robotics competitions!
Panhellenic and National Finals
Benefited with equipment
Participants
Participants
Our approach
We use our robotics contests as leverage in order to ensure that every school is not only willing but also able to take its first steps into STEM, either by enriching its official curriculum or by offering appropriate after-school activities. We do this by creating motives and ways for schools to obtain free infrastructure, by supporting teachers with free, continuous hands-on training, as well as by developing open-access lesson plans for elementary and secondary teachers.
WRO Hellas organizes two separate competitions for all educational levels: the Panhellenic Educational Robotics Competition (October – March) and the WRO Educational Robotics Olympiad (March-July).
The two competitions start from the Regions and end in Athens for the holding of the Final. The competitions are addressed to the educational community as a whole, to primary and secondary education.
As part of the competitions, we are looking for supporters who will help us offer free educational robotics equipment to schools that cannot afford it. Equipment is essential in schools, both for their participation in competitions and for the broader integration of educational robotics into teaching practice. Combined with the work of educating the country’s teachers on educational robotics, we aim to broaden the Greek educational community in order to be able to interpret and utilize the numerous educational opportunities offered by educational robotics.
WRO Hellas strives to equip at least 100 schools each year. So far we have managed to equip more than 800 schools with educational robotics equipment.
The nationwide nature of the competitions creates for us the opportunity to train teachers from all over the country on educational robotics. As part of the preparation of the teams at the regional level, we are organizing local workshops. So far, more than 2,000 teachers have been trained during the 2017-2018 school year.
WRO Hellas offers free intensive seminars and webinars.
The general philosophy of seminars and webinars is that of Hands on Training. Each educational subject is taught through exemplary constructions, according to the topic of the current educational robotics competition.
MISSION
With the help of the educational robotics competitions, we seek the introduction of educational robotics, as well as the broader STEM methodology (Science – Technology – Engineering-Mathematics), in the official educational system of Greece.
Our Team
The Organizing Team of WRO Hellas
Ioannis Somalakidis
Antonis Tzes
Aris Louvris
Υπό την Αιγίδα
Strategic Partner
Great Donor
Under the auspices
Sponsors
I would like to express my admiration for WRO Hellas work. In such a difficult time for the country and especially for Education, the development of methods and applications of automation and robotics in education is closely related to a social need, especially when combined with decentralized actions. So I want you to know that I fully support the consistant proposal for admission of Educational Robotics in compulsory education.
Stamatios Krimizis
The competitions organized by WRO Hellas with the strategic cooperation of COSMOTE are a unique way for children to understand the sciences, programming and automation, to think like engineers, to develop their ability to solve problems, to expand their creativity – qualifications that are necessary for their successful course in the 21st century. Thousands of students and teachers are taking part in this celebration of technology and education, which ultimately aims to make the science of engineering a national goal. Along with educational robotics, we are developing support activities,such as the free training of coaches and the free distribution of training books with the first “How to teach with Scratch”.
Ioannis Somalakidis
The future of our society is inseparably linked to technology and innovation. Investing in the development of children’s digital skills, we invest in their progress and future career.
OTE Group was one of the first to support educational robotics in Greece and promoted its spread to the new generations. In our days, thousands of students take part in Panhellenic competitions and represent our country in international competitions.
We can create a better world for everybody combining the ideas of young people and the technology support.
