Programming education introduced in elementary schools! — Wise Integration’s “Sobigo” Project —
Hello, this is PR Sunny-chan!
As previously introduced on our blog, here is “Sobigo,” a children’s programming teaching material from Wise Integration, a group company of SUNNY SIDE UP!
On Wednesday the 26th of this week, we held a hands-on programming learning workshop for fourth-grade students at Kita City Takinogawa No. 6 Elementary School. With many people having the impression that “programming seems difficult…,” I was also very curious about how children learn it, so I covered the event with great interest!
For this workshop, the students tried the block-based programming material “Sobigo BP1,” experiencing the joy of creating through play and the satisfaction of bringing what they imagine to life.
First, the students learned how programming works by using actual toy blocks and a map. The blocks have arrows and pictures of animals on them. Looking at the pictures on the blocks, we asked them to think about the order in which they should connect the blocks to go meet the girl on the map.
“Move three to the right, so use three ‘→’ blocks, then five ‘↑’ blocks…” and so on—through play, they learned that in programming, “connecting things in the correct order is important.”
Wondering what the animal pictures represented, they then connected the blocks in the same way on the app screen.
They experienced on a tablet how the character they programmed would move. Earlier, they connected blocks for the task of “going to meet the girl” (= they programmed), but next they set their own goals as they liked and created the programming needed to achieve those goals.
We asked several students to present, and each one had a different story—making for very engaging presentations.
One student reached the goal in less than a second after starting. Everyone reacted with “Huh?” and “What just happened?”—but the block with a rabbit picture is a block (command*) that speeds up movement, and the student used 30 of them. Along the way to the goal, the stage offers various challenges, such as talking with characters and being barked at by a dog. I was surprised by the idea of “reaching the goal as fast as possible,” but I could only admire the idea of clearing every mission and then reaching the goal.
This student set the main character as “a bit of a mischievous kid,” and, following a self-created story, programmed actions such as making a doll bigger using the elephant block and being barked at by a dog. As it kept getting bigger, it was a fun presentation that made you wonder, “How big will it get?!”
It reminded me again that there are so many different approaches and ideas for getting from start to goal—and I was amazed by children’s free imagination. The other children also seemed inspired by the presentations, saying things like, “I didn’t know you could do it that way.”
We heard comments such as “When I first heard ‘programming,’ it sounded difficult, but once I tried it, it was fun and I felt comfortable doing it.” and “I wanted to do more!”, and the workshop ended on a very high note.
After the workshop, we also held a training session and exchange of opinions on programming education for the teachers.
This workshop was hosted by teachers from the ICT Education Research Division of the Kita City Elementary School Education Research Association, and as the introduction of programming education in 2020 approaches, the people most concerned were the teachers themselves. Therefore, we made this an opportunity for teachers to watch children actually learning programming and to learn together what interests them and how well they understand it.
In the training session, we shared the significance and essence of programming education as envisioned by the “Sobigo” project team, as well as what we hope students will learn through “Sobigo.” Teachers commented that “When introducing it, we were concerned about staff skills and knowledge, and we were unsure what we could teach through programming, but seeing the children eagerly learn programming made us feel there are things that can only be taught through programming.” While there are challenges ahead of the 2020 introduction of programming education, we believe this became an opportunity for participants to recognize the need for programming education.
Going forward, “Sobigo” will continue its activities to help many children discover the joy of creating through play and the satisfaction of making what they imagine a reality. We also hope to provide the “things and experiences” that help children and educators begin programming in an enjoyable way.
Please check our future activities here♪
Sobigo Official Website
Official Facebook Page
