CS First: family-format coding labs
Project CS First is organising interesting coding labs that involve both parents and children on the free platform developed by Google.
The Istituto comprensivo Ernesto Monaci in Soriano nel Cimino (Viterbo), directed by Emilia Conti, has documented last week’s session with Coach Valentina Gelsomini on the school website. In particular, the lab involved a primary school class at the E. Celestini School in Vasanello, a school with a high number of foreign students.
“Activities focus on coding and the creation of fun cartoons through collaborative didactic activities that leave room for the creativity!”
“The activities were difficult to organise, especially as we had to overcome the initial resistance of teachers,” explains Valentina. “At first, many teachers were dubious, but they were then won over by the fun and collaborative atmosphere and the results. Now, they’d like to have many more meetings of this kind!”
“The lab is very simple,” explains Valentina. “After a short introduction on the importance of computers and computer science in all jobs, we explain the choice of the CS First Platform and how block coding works. Then, we begin!”
The lab is organised as a mini hackathon. Parents and children work together on developing a small project and in the last 15 minutes all the projects are shared.
“A small family dedicated their work to the teachers, narrating the last day of school,” adds Valentina, “it was a very touching moment.”
