In the “Extension Activity” course at university, students are required to create and carry out a project with social impact.

There are many ways to contribute to the community. Among the possibilities, I chose to work with children :)

Children are always open, curious, and enthusiastic about everything new.

So why not teach computer science to children in a fun and accessible way?

That’s how my extension project was born: “Computational Learning in Childhood: Introduction to Computing and Programming for Children.”

The initiative was developed with 4th-grade students at a public elementary school in Cachoeirinha.

The project lasted three days, with classes of 3 to 4 hours each. During this time, we explored the history of computers, how they work, the role of their components, and basic programming logic.

Each day featured a different activity:

Day 1: We held a quiz and a memory game — with prizes!

Day 2: We built a game together from scratch using Scratch.

Day 3 (final day): We had a “component hunt” around the school where the kids had to find the missing parts to assemble a computer. We also reviewed the function of each key component. (On this day, the kids received participation certificates and small gifts!)

The children embraced the project with lots of enthusiasm and affection! It was three days full of conversation (about anime, Roblox, Minecraft…), games, learning, and technology. Three unforgettable days that I’ll carry with me forever!

I hope that in some way, this project positively impacted at least one child — and helped contribute to the democratization of technological knowledge, bringing them closer to computational thinking in a fun and lighthearted way :)

P.S. The educational materials created for this extension activity were signed under “Alegoria dos Computeiros”, another project of mine!

(I’ll make a post about Alegoria soon, but if you’re curious, check it out here: https://www.alegoriadoscomputeiros.com/)

(see the full post on linkedin!!!!! -> https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7325650317780389888/)