Computational Thinking in primary Education

<< Background >>The role of science and technology in our society is increasing and our knowledge about STEM, together with an inquiring attitude, enables us to better understand the world and ourselves and get ready for the future. We use technology every day. Children need to know the fundamentals of a discipline that permeates everything we do. Computational thinking is a problem-solving skill such that a computer can execute a solution. Despite its name, Computational Thinking is a fundamental skill not only for computer scientists, but for many other professionals. Educational systems still do not focus enough on these competences. Our project aims to support children in building these skills and digital competence. Although this generation is growing up with an exposure to STEM much larger than their parents, some groups are still left behind; communities in poor socio-economic areas, with families with no access to STEM. During the pandemic this group has grown in many countries. To prevent a major lack of knowledge and skills in our future generation it is of most importance to invest and educate this group of children that need it the most. << Objectives >>This project aimed to foster the digital competences of children age 6-12 from marginalized areas, as well as their teachers. The activities we developed aimed to empower children from marginalized areas and support them in acquiring and developing 21st century skills and digital competences contributing to the overall objectives of the European Commission’s vision of promoting inclusion and equity, promoting STEM and digital competences.The project uses 21st century skills such as computational thinking to foster the educational development andimprovement of digital skills of children age 6-12 and their teachers. The project aims to build their engagement with science, improve their 21st century skills and address their low science capital by explicitly focusing on the marginalized areas of the countries involved. The project emerges from the increasing science competence gap and the need for better equipped people.<< Implementation >>A1 Development Roadmap on computational thinking: Researched the status of CT in the national education programs, searched for existing examples of CT activities, desk research on CT in education. During the first TPM it was decided to add a scheme which shows how skills and concepts develop with children when working on CT, in order to make the roadmap even more practical for teachers and educators. A2 Transnational learning Event held 20 June 2020 in Bilbao, 16 participants took part.A4, A5, A6 National Training Event Teachers – All partners trained teachers. 79 teachers were reached.A7, A8, A9 After School workshops All partners ran these workshops with different groups of students. 380 students were reached.A10 International dissemination event was held on 2-9-23 in Curaçao, 27 teachers and 8 educators from the consortium took part. An online event for students from Spain, Curacao and the Netherlands, where they programmed each other to dance a choreography from the other country. << Results >>A1 Roadmap for Using CT in schools. A practical Roadmap for teachers and educators who want to work with CT. Extra output: Flowchart, this shows where in the roadmap you can find information depending on your previous experience. A3 Longlist and adaptation of 6 activities. Extra output: 8 activities. During the development of the roadmap we found six activities wouldn’t be sufficient to meet the goals of the project. That is why we decided to create the activities based on the skills and concepts we described in the roadmap. We also wanted to have online and offline version of the activities in order for them to be inclusive and useable for the target audience. This has lead to 14 activities instead of 6. 1 Activity about General Skills (set of 7 assignment)4 Activities on the CT foundations (Offline)3 Activities on Programming (Online and Offline)2 Activities on Tinkering with CT (Online and Offline)4 Activities on Using CT in projects (Online and Offline) A4, A5, A6 National Training Event Teachers. The guide Teacher Training, a train the trainer guide for educators to train teachers. All materials are published on the project website https://computationalthinking.education/ and mentioned on partners websites.