Stem,computing thinking. Onda Cero

Last Thursday we have the pleasure to host Onda Cero at our School. The purpose of their visit was to make a radio program to know in detail our educative programme in STEM, and more specifically in computational thinking.  

 In the first part of the programme, the teachers explained how do we work those subjects from three years old to College. It was a pleasure to listen to our Computer Science teacher in the Infants and Primary areas, Gabriel Pérez, explained that to teach technology it is not always necessary to teach programming, as this can also be achieved using unplugged dynamics, where the protagonists are pupils themselves receiving instructions from other pupils, and being “programmed” without being aware of it.

Alberto Guallar described what a Makerspace is, what is the collaborative and creative spirit of this space, and a secret was revealed: a scape room for the educational community using Alexa, and some technologies such as augmented reality is being created.

Our New Technologies Coordinator, Cristian Ruiz, offered the project´s global vision, where developing thinking abilities, creativity and problem solving is justified in a global program that is already six years old, and has been evolving to cover all age ranges.

Jorge Lizar represented the voice of the families in this project, and as a school dad and founder of Robotics in Family six years ago, he shared how parents and children get together to work in robotic projects. 

But undoubtedly, the most anticipated, and most spectacular, was the participation of a large number of students who are carrying out projects, and in all educational stages. From satellites that are launched in space,  virtual tours of Zaragoza, computer technicians who recondition computers in disuse donated by families to send them to Gambia, creators of joysticks who use them with their own video games, fingerprint sensor programmers that open smart locks, creators of devices capable of measuring the level of CO2 of a class, etc …

When asked how we can measure the impact of our educational program on computational thinking, we said that the important thing is not the grades, but the amount of projects that are currently being carried out in the school and where the students put into practice everything they have learned to create “things” or solve problems. This is what gives us the most pride, having creative students who are able to work together in different programming languages, understanding not only the world around them, but being able to interact with it, not only being consumers, but creators in the world increasingly digital.

 Link: https://www.ondacero.es/temas/magazine_zaragoza-1