Game on! at the Artemisia Gentileschi Comprehensive Institute
Climate action, Life below water and Life on land are three of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. But how can we contribute to their achievement?
At the Artemisia Gentileschi Comprehensive Institute in Rome, in the heart of the Centocelle district, thirty-five students from the fifth grade of the primary school, together with 35 American tutors, got involved in the final creathon of the Game On! format, a unique experience within the Coding Girls programme, realised together with theUniversity of Delaware [see the news item Game on!]
The collaboration with the University of Delaware came about almost ‘by chance’, originating in October 2023, when professors Lori Pollock and Katie Wassil contacted the Fondazione Mondo Digitale ETS - after coming across our Coding Girls programme on the web - with the idea of involving university students in Steam training activities in Italian schools. From there, a short but highly practical and incisive course was born, based on successful methodologies such as learning by doing and peer-to-peer education, which characterise most of the activities of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale ETS, and with the Coding Girls format as a reference point.
In this context, the creathon was the culmination of two intense days of work, which began on 9 January with classroom training in which the students devised stories using Scratch. The following day, Friday 10 January, under the guidance of American university tutors and trainers from the Fondazione Mondo Digitale ETS - Giulia, Mohamed, Graziele and Emanuele - the students divided into eight teams and worked together to create a unique narrative on one of the Sustainable Development Goals presented, integrating the ideas developed previously.
It was a very intense time of sharing, knowledge and also fun, but it was also two days of ‘testing’: for the fifth grade students, but also for the school in general, it was a great opportunity but also a challenge, starting with the language.
For the final presentations of the projects and the award ceremony, we moved to the school theatre. The prizes were awarded by the jury composed of the two University of Delaware professors Lori Pollock and Katie Wassil, the trainer of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale Graziele, the teacher of the IC Artemisia Gentileschi, Antonella Caroni, and, last but not least, the teacher of the Municipio V, Cecilia Fannuzza.
Here are the different awards for the four teams:
- Best project for team 8, composed of Viola, Ginevra and Sandro, flanked by their American tutors Kayla, Nate and Greg, with the project Life under water: respect the sea
- Most creative project for team 7, consisting of Joheta, Nusayba, Samara and Sara, supported by the American tutors Allison, Nicole, Iruin, Nolan and Asher, and with the project Life on land and underwater
- Most effective project, for team 1, composed of Nuriya, Giulia and Giorgia, supported by the American tutors Tricia, John and the Fondazione Mondo Digitale trainer Giulia, and with the project Protect life below water!
- Best code for team 2, composed of Giorgia, Sabrina, Giulia and Beatrice, joined by American tutors Grace, Crissa, Tatiana and Sakhee, and with the Recycle project.
Amidst smiles, hugs and selfies, we said goodbye with a ‘Ciao’ from the University of Delaware students and a ‘Bye bye’ from the beautiful and talented Artemisia Gentileschi students.
Thanks to head teacher Alessandra Silvestri and a special thanks to teacher Antonella Caroni for taking on this challenge. Thanks to our trainers involved in these two days of activities - Daniele, Emanuele, Giulia, Mohamed and Graziele - thanks to teachers Lori Pollock and Katie Wassil for the trust and enthusiasm that they and their students put into this activity. Thanks to Councillor Cecilia Fannuzza for her presence and participation and thanks, last but not least, to Cecilia, an enthusiastic colleague and irreplaceable reference for the programme and the now large community of Coding Girls since its inception.
We conclude, therefore, this first Italian-American experience by saying goodbye with what the students of the University of Delaware shared: ‘Bye, for now...see you to the next stop: Florence!’ - ‘Bye, for now, see you to the next stop: Florence!’.
The story is by Elisabetta Gramatica, project officer
