Steps through Europe

Publication date: October 14, 2022

By Diana Gheorghe, teacher in Ploiești, Romania 

The ‘Steps through Europe’ event, which I coordinated, involves second grade pupils from the George Emil Palade secondary school in the city of Ploiești, Romania. Last year we travelled together with ozobots through a model of the centre of our city, getting to know the city’s main institutions, and also through our country getting to know several important cities and the landforms that the ozobots traversed. At the same time, we learned to program the ozobots using the colour code, while also using applications.  

This year, through the Code week 2022 event, we wanted to travel beyond the country’s borders, to get to know Europe, some of the capitals of European countries, or cities that the Danube River crosses. In our school textbooks, there are lessons that teach about our hometown, landforms, Europe and the Danube River.  

Through such events, I want my students to know the world that surrounds them, starting small (the city I live in) and getting larger (our planet). All this combined with a pleasant exercise in programming the ozobots or the robot Marty. For this event, we made a map of Europe and the students were divided into four groups: two groups programmed ozobots, and the other two groups will programmed the Marty robots.  

The groups received precise tasks. That was to program the ozobots and the Marty robots to move to a specific city on the map of Europe. Then, the gates of the city would open, allowing them to get to know it better if the team in question could correctly solve some mathematical problems. Here is an example of my students learning about European cities. The teams were formed in such a way that the students can meet all the requirements until the end, learn from each other and help each other. 

The activity is also a small competition where everyone will emerge victorious, and they will be rewarded at the end. At this event, we also involved other classes from different schools who also registered on the Code Week map. They visited the Code Week website, registered an event with the same name and the same code that I sent them in advance. I also publicised the event on my Facebook page and the Code Week page for those who want to join our event. The activity can be adapted to any primary grade level.

It combines programming, mathematics and knowledge of the environment that surrounds us.