Every year you hear schools talking about innovation.
Then there’s this institute in La Laguna quietly building wildfire systems, microplastic detectors and smart streetlights.
Slight difference.
IES Profesor Martín Miranda Continues Its National Success Story
📍 San Cristóbal de La Laguna
Students at:
🏫 IES Profesor Martín Miranda
Have once again reached the national stage with technology projects tackling real problems facing the Canary Islands.
And this isn’t a one-off either.
The school seems to do this every year.
Two Tenerife Projects Reach National Semi-Finals
Students from Roberto Díaz’s Technology class developed two projects now sitting among the:
🏆 Top 12 semi-finalists
In the national:
💻 VIII Efigy Technological Competition
Competing against:
👥 More than 3,000 students
📚 102 projects from across Spain
Not bad going for a public school in Tenerife.
AgroFlare: Early Wildfire Detection
One team created:
🔥 AgroFlare
An autonomous wildfire prevention system designed to detect risk conditions before fires start.
The students explained the idea simply:
Too much depends on someone spotting smoke first.
Their system monitors factors such as:
🌡 Ground dryness
🌿 Environmental conditions
And alerts emergency services earlier.
Given Tenerife’s recent wildfire history…
That feels very relevant.
EcoWave: Tracking Water Quality and Microplastics
The second project:
🌊 EcoWave
Focuses on:
💧 Water quality monitoring
🧪 Detection of microplastics along the coast
The team believes the islands genuinely need tools like this.
And honestly…hard to argue.
They’re Also Building Smart Streetlights
Because apparently two national projects weren’t enough…
The same class is also developing:
💡 A sustainable intelligent streetlight
Capable of measuring:
🌡 Temperature
💧 Humidity
🌬 Air quality
After students decided normal street lighting was:
“Very basic.”
Ambitious bunch.
Last Year They Already Won Nationally
This isn’t new territory either.
Last year the school won:
🏆 €2,000 national prize in Seville
For:
🧫 Algactive
A system automating microalgae growth while measuring:
⚗ pH
🌡 Water temperature
🌿 CO₂ absorption
So What’s the Secret?
Teacher Roberto Díaz thinks it comes down to motivation and computational thinking.
Students start programming young and are encouraged to solve real-world problems.
His words were pretty simple:
💬 “Competitions motivate them greatly.”
Because students know they might end up presenting their work across Spain.
Worth Knowing
Reading this does make you wonder slightly what everyone else was doing at school.
Because while some of us were barely surviving maths homework…
These students are out here building wildfire prevention systems.
Fair play to them.