Robots and computational thinking at Mn. Albert Vives School in Spain

Publication date: December 14, 2018

In 2018 the Mn. Albert Vives School in La Seu d’Urgell (Catalonia) introduced an innovative pedagogical project in robotics and computational thinking. It runs throughout the whole year and focuses on children from 3 to 12 years old.

Kids can enroll in 5 different activities:

1/ Robotics as a school subject

The classes are divided into groups of 12 pupils of each age group during the school year. They use tools such as Bee-Bot, Mindstorms EV3 or WeDo 2.0.

2/ Workshops

Children are put into small groups of 15-16 and take part in workshops comprising 8 consecutive sessions during the school year. They learn to create simple lines of code with Scratch or Edison.

3/ Digital Competences

Once the children have completed the work set by the teacher in the Digital Competence class, they work individually via their own profile on code.org from January to June 2019

4/ Additional Support Programme

Pupils who have special educational needs work with Robotics and Computational Thinking during the time assigned each week to give them extra support in all areas of the curriculum as well as social support. They use Blue-Bot and Robotis Play as well as material from the robotics class.

5/ Learning and Service

During the first term of this school year, as part of the subject Learning and Service the children visit a workshop for those with intellectual special needs. They have designed a game called l’Emoji-Bot which explores emotions with Bee-Bot.

6/ Competitions

Currently, the school participates in the First Lego League Jr, with children from 6-9 years old and in World Robot Olympiad with after-school club children. The last two years they were runners up in the Spanish Championship and classified for the World Championship.