By Maria Cristina Azevedo Gomes
Instituto Politecnico de Viseu
Children have always played with physical objects, developing a range of skills. Robotics offers a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between the tangible and the digital, allowing children to connect physical objects with programming and thus scaffolding the development of computational thinking. This problem-solving approach, encompassing abstraction, decomposition, pattern recognition, and algorithmic thinking, empowers children to solve problems or create projects. This environment fosters “computational participation,” where coding is a social and creative practice. Playing with robots provides a platform for constructionist learning, encouraging children to build their meaningful creations “objects-to-think-with”, leading to deeper learning and greater achievements. In their learning process, children express value in creating tangible and shareable projects.
The Portuguese Ministry of Education is supporting the digital transition in schools. As part of this effort, several ICT competence centers have been established across the country. Recognizing the importance of developing computational thinking from an early age, the Viseu ICT Competence Center (https://cctic.esev.ipv.pt/) is actively promoting educational robotics in Early Childhood Education centers. By working with programmable floor robots, like the Bee-Bot, children develop projects, such as games or interactive storytelling scenarios, that span multiple curriculum areas, extending beyond mathematics. Connecting these experiences with Environmental Education – the Greencode approach – has been met with enthusiasm and great ideas. There is always room for creating new ways of supporting children to become great thinkers and problem-solvers.