Google Rise Award approves project of the initiative Computação na Escola
The project Physical Computing Family Workshops coordinated by the Initiative Computação na Escola received the Google Rise Award.
The project is focused on the development, implementation, and evaluation of family workshops where parents alongside their children (10-14 years) learn basic skills of computer programming. In the workshops, they learn concepts of physics computation making interactive dolls that flash with their eyes or shake their arm when someone approaches. This will be done by integrating Scratch and Arduino as a low-cost solution and at the same time easy and fascinating to learn computing.
The project is coordinated by the Iniciativa Computação na Escola of the GQS/INCoD – Instituto Nacional para Convergência Digital, a research institute of the Science and Technology Ministry headquartered at the INE – Departament of Informatics and Statistics of the UFSC – Federal University of Santa Catarina. The initiative is dedicated to increase computer education in elementary schools providing all students the opportunity to learn computing, involving much more than just the use of software systems, including computational thinking and computer programming.
The need to learn how to write computer programs goes beyond professional utility. Even if they won’t become future computer scientists, all children should have the opportunity to be ” fluent ” in programming.
“From phones to cars and even medicine, technology touches every part of our lives. If you can create technology, you can change the world.”
Susan Wojcicki, CEO Youtube (ex SVP Google)
In this century, to know how to program computers has become a basic and useful skill for everyone and in all aspects of life. It can be seen as a kind of “magic power”, which allows one who is fluent in programming to carry out his/her creative ideas through animations, games, applications – everything you can imagine!
Google Rise Award is part of the Google for Education Program that encourages students to be creators and not just future technology consumers. Only in 2015 Google Rise Award has allocated $ 1.5 million to 37 organizations from 17 countries, including Brazil.
