“Introduction to computer science for primary school pupils - you can learn a lot even without a computer!”

How do I tell a robot how to make a sandwich, clear garbage in the park or catch a balloon? On March 5, 2020, a sixth grade class from the Grundschule an der Wuhlheide was able to find out at our introductory programming workshop at HTW. programming at the HTW. One of the most important findings from this workshop was certainly Computer science education is possible with analog games even without expensive technical equipment!

As the participants had no prior knowledge of computer science, the workshop began with an introduction. We considered what computers actually are and where a computer can be found. This was followed by a small experiment: one of our mentors played a robot that took commands from the participants. commands from the participants. The aim was to prepare a cheese sandwich. If the butter was then spread on the underside of the roll instead of on the sliced side, it was not only fun, but also made the participants realize that you really have to be very precise with computer commands, because the computer does exactly what you tell it to do.

With this first aha moment in their luggage, the participants took on the next challenge: As part of a board game we created, robots were maneuvered through a park to collect garbage. Along the way, the participants internalized basic programming principles: Instruction sequences, loops, parameters and conditions. With this knowledge, some of the participants even managed to to program a simple algorithm to automatically find the path through the park. You can find the board game at Müll im Park.pdf to build it yourself.

Programming was not only analog, but also digital. Participants learned how servomotors for robot movements servo motors for robot movements work and were able to assemble a miniature crane designed by HTW students, which they were also allowed to program straight away. Participants were also able to solve our small programming puzzles: In the Scratch programming language, commands were put together so that a robot could catch a balloon. The puzzles can be found on the Scratch website. Simply select a puzzle and then click on “Look inside” - then the program code can be edited.

CoderDojo Schöneweide was founded at HTW in October 2020 and is part of CoderDojo Deutschland e.V.. We are a team of nine students and have made it our goal to help children and young people learn to program free of charge. learning programming free of charge. In doing so, we focus on interest-based, playful learning in groups and a high supervision ratio. We are also happy to advise teachers of all subjects on how computer science can be lessons with or without technology.