In Rome the first stop of the University of Delaware delegation
With an afternoon of getting to know each other at the Città Educativa in Rome, the special ‘Coding Girls with University of Delaware’ programme got underway. The programme, launched in early January, brought American university students to collaborate with the Fondazione Mondo Digitale on an innovative project: using coding to tell stories, involving Italian primary and secondary school children.
The first meeting took place on 7 January and was attended by 35 students and teachers Katie Wassil and Lori Pollock from theUniversity of Delaware (USA). During the afternoon, the participants explored the potential of digital fabrication in the fab lab of the Palestra dell'Innovazione, living immersive experiences with Meta Quest and participating in a shared design session using the Lego Serious Play method, guided by project leaders Cecilia Stajano and Elisabetta Gramatica. Trainers Giulia Nardini, Daniele Vigo and Emanuele Coletta led the activities and will also accompany the students in future meetings with Italian classes.
On 8 January, at the headquarters of the US Diplomatic Mission in Italy, Ambassador Jack Markell welcomed the American students, sharing with them his professional and life experience. During the meeting, the director general of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, Mirta Michilli, illustrated the organisation's mission: to promote a democratic society of knowledge, involving citizens of all ages in development and growth. Michilli presented the educational model that supports projects such as Coding Girls, while Cecilia Stajano recalled the initiative's beginnings: ‘Today we are closing a circle. The first edition of Coding Girls involved two American students and, eleven years later, we are here with a large delegation from Delaware, ready to work together with our trainers. We have learnt how important it is to enhance local role models to make a real impact on students’.
Elisabetta Gramatica recounted the origin of the collaboration with the University of Delaware, which began in October 2023 with Professor Lori Pollock. She then illustrated the stages of the project, culminating in the design of a video game dedicated to the production of limoncello, which will be realised in the last stage in Sorrento.
The field activities started on 9 and 10 January at the Artemisia Gentileschi Comprehensive Institute in Rome, where two fifth classes of the primary school worked together with American students and trainers from the Fondazione Mondo Digitale. The pupils created short stories with Scratch and participated in a final hackathon inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals [see news item Game on!].
The next stages of the project will be held in Sesto Fiorentino (16-17 January) and Sorrento (23-24 January). In Florence, two classes from the ‘Falcone e Borsellino’ secondary school will be tutored by two trainers from the University of Florence. In Sorrento, on the other hand, students from the Istituto Polispecialistico San Paolo, together with two trainers from the University of Salerno, will create a videogame on limoncello.
With this international collaboration, Coding Girls continues to promote digital skills and inclusion, inspiring young people from all backgrounds to build their own future.
