This project aimed to foster the digital competences of children age 6-12 from marginalized areas, as well as their teachers. The activities we developed aimed to empower children from marginalized areas and support them in acquiring and developing 21st century skills and digital competences contributing to the overall objectives of the European Commission’s vision of promoting inclusion and equity, promoting STEM and digital competences. The project uses 21st century skills such as computational thinking to foster the educational development and improvement of digital skills of children age 6-12 and their teachers. The project aims to build their engagement with science, improve their 21st century skills and address their low science capital by explicitly focusing on the marginalized areas of the countries involved. The project emerges from the increasing science competence gap and the need for better equipped people.
The role of science and technology in our society is increasing and our knowledge about STEM, together with an inquiring attitude, enables us to better understand the world and ourselves and get ready for the future. We use technology every day. Children need to know the fundamentals of a discipline that permeates everything we do. Computational thinking is a problem-solving skill such that a computer can execute a solution. Despite its name, Computational Thinking is a fundamental skill not only for computer scientists, but for many other professionals. Educational systems still do not focus enough on these competences. Our project aims to support children in building these skills and digital competence. Although this generation is growing up with an exposure to STEM much larger than their parents, some groups are still left behind; communities in poor socio-economic areas, with families with no access to STEM. During the pandemic this group has grown in many countries. To prevent a major lack of knowledge and skills in our future generation it is of most importance to invest and educate this group of children that need it the most.