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| 28 Apr 2026 | |
| Global Schools Prize - Finalists |
In the border town of Huaquillas, Ecuador, a community shaped by migration, poverty, and limited opportunity, Unidad Educativa Seis de Octubre has turned a public school into one of Latin America's most compelling STEM success stories. What began in 2021–2022 as a single post-pandemic experiment is now an institutional philosophy: "Aulas del Futuro: Innovación con Propósito" ("Classrooms of the Future: Innovation with Purpose").
Under the leadership of Rector Mgs. Jorge Patric Peña Guevara, the school consolidated Ecuador's first "Aula del Futuro" in 2022 — a flexible learning space built around Project-Based Learning and a STEM/STEAM/STEAM+H approach (the "+H" representing the human dimension). Today, the model has scaled to nine Future Classrooms across Computing, Language, Experimental Sciences, Electromechanics, Electrical Installations, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Physics-Chemistry, and Arts, directly benefiting 992 students to date — growing from 103 per year to 689 in 2025–2026.
The student work emerging from these classrooms is extraordinary. ArduinChair, a smart propulsion system for wheelchairs, was born when students noticed a young classmate struggling to move independently. It won 1st place nationally at Feria CREA 2024, secured municipal seed funding to build a full-scale version, and in 2025 won 1st place at the GOAT Awards and 2nd at the Ecuador–Peru Binational Fair. Medicina Verde: Hidroponía para la Salud Escolar took 1st place (Scientific category) at the 2025 Binational Fair. PichinchaGame, an educational video game about Ecuador's independence, won 1st place at Feria CREA 2025. Earlier wins include GamificandoAndo (1st, Binational Fair 2023) and a Sumo Robot Battle project (3rd, CREA 2023).
Institutional recognition has followed. The project is registered on Ecuador's National Educational Innovation Map (2023) and included in the OAS and ProFuturo Mapping of Best Practices in Digital Education of the Americas. The Minister of Education visited the school personally. Rector Peña Guevara was named to the Top 50 of the Global Teacher Prize 2025, and student Jennifer Crizantos Sánchez, formed entirely within the Aula del Futuro, was named to the Top 50 of the Global Student Prize 2025, earning a university scholarship. The Municipality of Huaquillas has backed the project with seed capital and a donation of 12 computers.
Pedagogically, the school follows a seven-phase PBL methodology that walks students from problem identification through research, prototyping, and public dissemination, embedding ethical reflection, inclusion, and environmental responsibility throughout. Heterogeneous team composition and role assignment ensure girls, students with learning difficulties, and underrepresented groups participate meaningfully.
If awarded, prize funds would expand equipment across the remaining Future Classrooms, deepen teacher training in active methodologies, and scale student projects from prototypes to community-ready solutions.
This is the story of a public school in a vulnerable frontier community that refused to accept that innovation belongs elsewhere and, through the imagination of its students and the conviction of its teachers, made itself a model for Ecuador and the Americas.
