Six students from a public school on the outskirts of Caucaia, Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza, won gold and silver medals in the national stage of the Brazilian Rocket Olympics (OBAFOG). The achievement came at the end of last October.
One of the gold medalists is Wellyson Correia Lima, 15 years old, who is in the 9th year of elementary school at the Osmar Diógenes Pinheiro school, located in the Conjunto Metropolitano neighborhood — popularly known as “Picuí”. The OBAFOG newcomer did not deny his surprise with the result.
"To be honest, I didn't expect such a high prize. So, we managed to win gold medals at this Olympics. It's something surprising, even difficult to imagine", said the teenager.
The teaching unit offers education from kindergarten to the 9th year of elementary school and has around 600 students enrolled. Data from the Basic Education Development Index (Ideb) show that only 4% of 9th grade students show adequate learning in mathematics. In Portuguese, the percentage is 21%.
Wellyson explained that the desire to participate in the Olympics came from the encouragement of science teacher Rafael Matos. During the preparation for the practical and theoretical tests that the competition required, his desire grew proportionately.
"Before launching [the first rocket], I saw it as an interest, but I still didn't have that interest, so much interest in rockets and academic interest in relation to it. It was only later, while we were doing it, that we really became really interested, beyond what we already had in terms of knowledge", explained the student.
Wellyson won gold in the team formed with colleagues Eric Silva Lima das Chagas and Francisco Riquelme Almeida Soares. Students Eryck Vieira Sousa, Marcus André Moreira Freitas and Pedro Yuri Acelino Meneses took silver.
Still in elementary school, the teenager said that the experience has already motivated him about the career he wants to pursue. "This rocket Olympics was an important milestone for me to be able to really decide what I really want to do in my future. I want to do engineering", commented the student, who dreams of joining the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), an institution that has started the implementation of a campus in Ceará.
The medals are the consecration of months of dedication not only by the six winning students, but also by professor Rafael Matos, who took the initiative to promote their participation in OBAFOG.
The teacher said that, at the beginning of the school year, he encourages students to participate in Olympics, not just the Brazilian Rocket Games. “Now, they may not realize it, but in the future, these Olympics will help a lot with admission to public universities, which, in recent years, have been adopting this form of admission through Olympic medals and certificates”, commented the professor.
According to the teacher, the school registered more than 30 teams, each made up of three students. In May, the students participated in a municipal stage, held at the Raimundo de Oliveira Municipal Stadium, known as Raimundão, in Caucaia. The following month, the Olympic organization released the list of classifieds for the national stage, which included two teams from the school.
"We had a few weeks of preparation, assembling the rockets, building them on the school playground, we spread out the tables, got the materials. I helped them buy some materials that they didn't have money for", recalled the educator.
At the stage in Caucaia, the six students managed to qualify for the national final by obtaining the best results. “After launching everyone, it was a whole day, under the sun, we had two teams that surpassed 100 meters, including the first placed team reaching 151 meters”, explained the professor.
The test consisted of launching rockets, made from PET bottles, from structures assembled by each team. The objective was to make the projectile travel as far as possible.
The good results in Caucaia were repeated in the national competition, which took place in a farm hotel located in Barra do Piraí, in Rio de Janeiro. The gold team's rocket managed to reach 303 meters away; while the silver medalist projectile was at 213.3 meters. The gold medalist rocket reached a height close to the top of the Eiffel Tower, at 330 meters.
“I really became very fulfilled professionally, because it's great that I can make people reach places that they couldn't reach before, which were only intended for those who have money”, highlighted Rafael.
The Osmar Diógenes Pinheiro school is located in an area marked by social vulnerability, on the outskirts of Caucaia, a city with a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.682.
In this context, the medals shine even brighter in the eyes of Maria Auxiliadora da Silva, director of the school. “So here we have several students who we are always looking for opportunities for them to reach new spaces in their lives”, he said.
"I am particularly happy because when we see these students in a reality in which they experience vulnerability in a neighborhood where violence and other factors predominate. And we realize that through education these boys are having the opportunity to have a significant experience in their lives. So this is already a very big achievement for me", highlighted the teacher.
The tickets and registration of the six students to Rio de Janeiro and two more teachers responsible for the teams were paid for by the City of Caucaia. Each registration cost R$1,400. Despite the help from public authorities, there was also a mobilization of the community to help the participants financially.
"We did it through raffles. We mobilized the school by doing raffles, crowdfunding online. Parents mobilized too. We managed to put all of this together and everything worked out", celebrated the director.
