In 2022, 80 thousand primary and secondary school students participated in the Tech Marathon, a school competition that seeks to spark young people’s interest in technology.
This year, iFood —sponsor of the event— and its partners (Cactus Association It is Tech Movement) multiply the challenge. Now, the goal is to reach 500 thousand students registered in the second edition of Marathon Tech.
Registration is free, runs until August 4th and can be done on the Marathon Tech website. Students from the sixth to the ninth year of primary and secondary education in public and private schools in Brazil can participate.
“The Marathon comes to encourage learning and awaken interest in technology. The present is already tech, and the future, no one has any doubt that it will be too”, highlights Luanna Luna, education director at iFood.
The challenge, he explains, is how to develop students and teachers to show that these opportunities are available to everyone. “Technology, if well directed, can be a vector of great social transformations, and that is what we believe”, he adds.
What the 2023 Tech Marathon will be like
To face this challenge, you do not need to have prior knowledge of technology. And the proposed activities can be carried out even in schools that do not have technological resources.
The Marathon will take place in two phases, held in August and September. The first is applied by teachers in the classroom, and students must propose solutions to problems in their own communities using technology.
The selected students move on to the second phase, in which they receive content and quizzes via WhatsApp chatbot. There are eight learning cycles focusing on computational thinking.
In 2022, the Tech Marathon brought together 80 thousand students in 21 states and 183 Brazilian cities. Of these participants, 222 were awarded technology scholarships.
The expectation for this second edition of the competition is to have 500 thousand students registered and a thousand young people to be awarded prizes at the end.
Awards this year include medals, notebooks, scholarships and technological immersions in big techs and excellent educational institutions, such as Insper.
Why does iFood invest in basic education?
As a Brazilian company, iFood seeks to strengthen the national technology ecosystem not only by sharing its knowledge in the area, but also by encouraging more people to follow career in tech.
Furthermore, supporting Marathon Tech brings iFood closer to fulfilling its commitments in the area of education until 2025. Are they:
- Encourage basic education to impact 5 million people;
- Train and employ 25 thousand people from underrepresented and low-income groups in technology;
- Empowering more than 5 million people for the work of the future and entrepreneurship.
