A Computational Thinking Initiative for Primary and Second Level Education
Our resources are available on our website pact.cs.nuim.ie.
The PACT programme is a partnership between researchers in Maynooth
University's Department of Computer Science and teachers at primary and
post primary schools around Ireland. Our overall goal is to develop a
primary and secondary level curriculum for computational thinking which
moves beyond programming and algorithms.
Computational thinking is about combining the creativity of human
thinking with the power of computing machines to solve problems across a
range of disciplines. The focus is not on learning facts about computers
but on developing creative ideas and solutions to real-world problems.
This develops a core skill which is crucial to a range of 21st century
careers that have been impacted by computer technologies.
Since 2012, over 500 teachers and 30,000 students have taken part in our
activities. These include seasonal Bebras tasks circulated to teachers
for use in the classroom; workshops on teaching computational thinking;
computational thinking modules for transition year students and
primary/secondary teachers; and related activities at Coder Dojos and
Science Week. As part of our promotion of Bebras tasks as a means to
introduce students to computational thinking, we host the national
finals of the annual Bebras International Computational Thinking
Challenge (Ireland).
We have been working with a number of “champion teachers” to develop a
Community of Practice to promote and develop a community of like-minded
individuals. If you would be interested in becoming involved with the
PACT initiative please contact us at: pact@cs.nuim.ie
Further information is available at our website pact@cs.nuim.ie.