EU Code Week Teach Day in Portugal: A Day to Remember in Leiria

Publication date: April 16, 2024

March 9th, 2024 was a happy day for EU Code Week in Portugal. The city of Leiria welcomed the first Portuguese EU Code Week Teach Day event. More than 100 teachers attended this conference, a full day of talks, workshops and demonstrations.

This event was organised by PT Leading Teacher Samuel Branco, in partnership with CCEMS – Centro de Competências Entre Mar e Serra, led by António Rodrigues and his amazing team, helped by PT Leading Teacher Artur Coelho. Portuguese EU Code Week ambassadors Anhelina Bykova and Diogo Rodrigues gave institutional support. EU Code Week EU provided funding to cover operational expenses.

The conference, titled “Developing Digital Skills with EU Code Week: From Computational Thinking to AI”, took place at Domingos Sequeira lyceum, just below the lovely ruins of Leiria’s medieval castle. This event’s programme was divided into three parts: a talk between coding in education experts, an Exploratorium, and workshops led by Portuguese leading teachers.

Under the motto Computational Thinking: A Perennial Skill or an Educational Fad, António Rodrigues from CCEMS sparked the debate between Paulo Torcato, PT Leading Teacher, Ana Louro PT Leading Teacher and Aida Graça (AE Palmela). In a lively discussion, panellists shared their views on the societal, educational and personal importance of developing coding skills, as well as their own experiences and projects.

After the panel, participants were invited into the Exploratorium. Inside the lyceum atrium, were showcased projects from several schools and institutions. AE Porto de Mós brought its VR expertise, showcasing VR in Education. Externato Cooperativo da Benedita showed projects from Professional Education students. EB Portela de Sacavém demonstrated AI in education with Pictoblox. Domingos Sequeira Lyceum’s students showcased their robotics projects. From AE Venda do Pinheiro came demonstrations of coding and robotics in art projects. CCEMS showcased educational robotics projects, as well as a new project using AI training in robotics.

In the afternoon, participants attended several workshops, given by portuguese EU Code Week Leading Teachers. Samuel Branco (ECB) led a workshop on STEAM and Arduino, Paulo Torcato (AE Portela) taught how to use coding and AI with Pictoblox, Ana Maria (AE Pombal) gave an introductory session with Scratch, and Artur Coelho (AEVP) explored connections between arts, coding and robotics. The one workshop not given by PT Leading Teachers was led by Diogo Constantino (Centro Linux/D3 Digital Rights Association), on Ubuntu and Open Source possibilities in education.

At the end of a very rich day, in learning and sharing experiences, participants left with a sense of what EU Code Week is, the importance of learning to code, and practical ideas and techniques. All of us were enriched by this event.

Thanks to CCEMS cooperation, this Teach Day extends into a professional development course, wich in the coming weeks will develop further these themes with participants.

The organisers, would like to extend our warm thanks to the partners that made this event possible: our panellists, Centro Linux, and all the attending teachers. We also thank the Directorate of Domingos Sequeira Lyceum, which kindly opened their doors for us on a rainy Saturday.

Finally, we cannot thank enough António Rodrigues and the CCEMS team, whose expertise, dynamism and experience were essential to be able to offer this outstanding day to more than 100 teachers.