Abstract:

The Children’s Congress at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz is a project that supports and promotes pupils in their research interests, digital competencies, creativity, collaborating abilities and problem solving. For this, the pupils slip into the role of researchers and scientists and try to solve a real world problem by using strategies from STEM fields. In this process, the pupils are supported by teachers, students of the teacher education program and students of the Honors Program from the STEM department at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. They work together in interdisciplinary projects, where mathematical problem-solving gets combined with different fields of disciplines, and two of the basic concepts of computer science: computational thinking and development of creative (digital) products.

The products and results are presented at a final event by the children themselves. The project aims at:
(1) promoting pupils and young talents for and at our university,
(2) increasing interest in computer science as well as
(3) fostering computational thinking competencies of teachers and students.

The results gained from questionnaires of participating pupils show a very positive feedback for the project including the preparation phase with workshops, the work on the students’ projects as well as the final event. Most of the pupils were very motivated during the whole process and proud of their final products. They described the project and the research process itself as being inspiring. Most of the pupils enjoyed the group work with their peers as well as with the supporting teachers and students. Most of them described that they improved their knowledge in the project concerning their academical knowledge as well as their knowledge in computer science. Moreover, the interest of most pupils in computer science could be increased and more than two thirds would like to join the Congress again. The paper describes the process of the Children’s Congress and the final event as well as some products developed by the children and evaluation results.

Keywords:

Computational Thinking, gifted students, teacher education, STEM education.