Future Worklab Come to Portuguese School

Our team at the PPG Architectural Coatings site in Sacavém, Portugal are proud to have a local school be a subject of the PPG’s community engagement grant making program!

Barreiro is a public school which integrates pre-school education and its mission is to promote education by valuing knowledge, work, merit and discipline in collaboration with families. With the recently awarded €5,000 the Barreiro School in Portugal has been equipped with one of the country’s first “Future Worklab” classrooms.

The innovative educational space combines state-of-art technology with interactive teaching strategies to help students strengthen their academic, innovation and entrepreneurial skills.

The Future Worklab consists of technology-infused zones that help guide students through every step of a project. The zones are dedicated to planning, research, project completion, and project presentation. More than 1,300 students from pre-school through grade 9 have ongoing access to the Future Worklab and its age-appropriate technology resources. The resources include interactive whiteboards, wireless internet access, computers, tablets, 3D printers, and other devices.

Studies show that access to technology dramatically improves student engagement and academic performance. As a community partner, we are happy to support the Barreiro School as it strives to strengthen the technical literacy of its students and improve student performance in the areas such as math, science and engineering.

Teachers, school partners and others also have access to the Worklab space for trainings and related programs.

The aim of the program is to motivate students to the use of new technologies; change ways of teaching and improving students' learning.