Programming Week: How schoolchildren created Marsobots in Penza

On October 14, 2017, in Penza, as part of the European Week of Programming and the MEET and CODE initiative, a series of programming master classes took place. At master classes, children from 7 to 12 years old were versed in, for which it is necessary to program, how to make the right algorithm, what is the “programming language” and “program”.

Children met with algorithms and Marsobots with great interest. Photo: Daria Trishina.

About the master class with Marsobots

The master class was held according to the script of an imaginary trip to Mars, where the guys had to manage Marsobots.

Marsobots are fictional robots that have arrived to explore Mars.

To solve the problem, it was necessary to understand how to give Marsobots the right teams. The teacher of "Algorithmics" has turned into a robot man, to whom the participants had to give clear consistent teams. Then the children were told that the algorithm compiled in the programming language is a program.

Teachers and parents help children with the first programs. Photo: Daria Trishina.

Children wrote their first programs on the online trender of Algorithmika. At first, Marsobot had to get to the fuel base in a straight line, then learn to make turns. Those who got to complex levels had to optimize the solution of the problem using the minimum number of commands.

Master classes visited 47 children with parents.

They explained to children that you can start programming in childhood, and parents saw that children are able to program even at 8 years old. As a result, 17 participants re -entered the platform under their username and password from the house and continued to perform tasks.

Participants of the workshop. Photo: Daria Trishina.

About the organizers of Meet and Code

The Meet and Code initiative supports programming measures in the following countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine.

The goal of the initiative is to show children and youth how fascinating and funny can be programming and how it can be used to implement ideas.
Behind the initiative of Meet and Code are SAP organizations, a greenhouse of social technologies , as well as TechSouP Europe .

The partners of the action in Penza were a programming laboratory for children "Algorithmika" , a greenhouse of social technologies in Penza and the Civil Union Foundation .