Promoter – João Barata
Action – “Ubbu Aprende a Programar”
Description –“Ubbu Aprende a Programar” aims to respond to the social problems of digital exclusion, school failure and dropout, and youth unemployment, through teacher training and Computer Science and Programming lessons in public schools of the 1st and 2nd cycles of basic education in the region. The project will last for 3 years and will run between Dec-2019 and Nov-2022.
There are several risk factors and causes that lead to the problem of exclusion from the education system and the difficulty of young people in the labor market. These factors manifest themselves in the form of disinterest and lack of motivation for school, which translates into school failure and typically leads to school dropout. Even when it does not translate into school failure and dropout, there is a growing gap between the skills developed in traditional schools and those required by the labor market, namely, in the context of qualification for a value-added economy.
This way, project focuses on new learning methods, through the training of teachers and the availability of contents for teaching the program, preventing the causes leading to lack of interest at school, as well as school failure. Digital literacy will be promoted and will contribute to the development of students’ essential skills for the job market, such as logical reasoning and problem-solving skills.
Specifically, students will learn programming concepts such as algorithms, conditions, events, variables and functions through animated videos, games, exercises, quizzes and block programming projects, in which they tell stories, draw or build mazes. In addition to these concepts directly related to programming, classes include themes from STEAM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) and also content based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which address issues of citizenship and sustainability and how technology can play an important role in their resolution.
Students associated with the Ubbu project will be better prepared for the future. Although professionally they may not follow careers in programming or STEAM areas, the foundations of programming as well as the skills they develop in these classes will help them understand and be more comfortable in dealing with the technological advances we will continue to watch in this century.
More information here.