Vitenparken

Class sets for all schools

The distribution of the equipment will take place in connection with the regional knowledge centers carrying out training for students at all of the country's primary and secondary schools. This will take place over the next four years, as part of the government's technological school bag. The program will reach over 100,000 students in grades 5-7, and the regional knowledge centers are carrying out this on behalf of the Norwegian Directorate of Education. With the grant from the DNB Savings Bank Foundation, each school will now receive a permanent classroom set for its own use. The training program also offers teacher courses and support materials freely available online so that everything is in place for good and interdisciplinary use for many years.

– This will give a real boost to primary and secondary schools to be able to work actively with programming understanding, says Geir Endregard, director of the INSPIRIA knowledge center and responsible for the project on behalf of the country's regional knowledge centers. With this project, children and young people in Norway will receive a common tool (micro:bit) that will help strengthen the connection between several learning arenas such as knowledge centers, schools and leisure. We have great faith in this unique connection between formal and informal learning, he emphasizes.

– There are many good projects that will help strengthen competence in schools when programming is to be included in the new curricula from 2020, Endregard emphasizes. – What is needed is a large national joint project that takes programming off the screen and gives all schools the same quality-assured offer across gender, geography, social background, technological competence and municipal finances.

– Incredibly great and important, agrees Torgeir Waterhouse, Director of Internet and New Media at ICT-Norway. – Norwegian schools need suitable equipment and the coding clubs around the country reinforce the initiative and the spread of knowledge. Lær Kidsa Koding has been working for this for several years, and is very pleased that common goals with the Science Center Association and their efforts now make this possible.

Uses Norwegian technology

An additional point with the choice of this equipment is that it is based on Norwegian developed technology. It is the Norwegian company Nordic semiconductors that has made the processor and all the communication the micro:bit uses. The Science Centres and Lær Kids Koding! also want to show the students through the project that it is possible for Norwegian companies to become world leaders in technology and programming, and that they need skilled employees in the future.

In addition to the school kits, Lær Kidsa Koding's 160 coding clubs will be equipped with the same type of equipment. This means that children can continue to learn and immerse themselves in their free time and take knowledge back to school and inspire both teachers and fellow students. The Science Center Association and Lær Kidsa Koding will also exchange experiences and learn from each other in the project how to create the best possible experiences and positive stimulation for children of different ages.

– All of us who work with children and technology can constantly improve – Many of us are pleased with the signals that technology is becoming more prominent in the new curricula, and that children will now learn basic programming and use programming in their subjects, says Waterhouse – The government's investment in the technological school bag is important, and with the support from Sparebankstiftelsen DNB we can now take this a big step further, he emphasizes.

Hands-on activities

The training program for schools will either take place at one of the regional science centers or by one of the centers visiting the schools. The program will use micro:bit and bit:bot to, among other things, let students build a car and control it using programming around a plan of a "smart city". The students must solve different tasks by programming and building small technical solutions. Everything is adapted to the new curricula and the desire for a greater understanding of technology and programming, and how it affects society. The program is being developed, tested and rolled out in the fall of 2019, and will be continuously developed based on the experiences in the schools.

– This is a great initiative, says Sissel Karlsen, head of gifts at Sparebankstiftelsens DNB. “Generation micro:bit” is a nationally coordinated project over three years that experience from abroad indicates will have a major effect on children and young people's digital creativity, their teachers and the school of the future. We know that the Science Centers and Lær Kidsa Koding are serious players and look forward to following the project, concludes Karlsen.

Teach Kids Coding

Learn Kidsa Koding! is a voluntary movement that works to ensure that children and young people learn to understand and master their own role in the digital society. LKK wants to help young people not only become users, but also creators with technology as a tool. In addition to increasing the general understanding of information technology, LKK wants to contribute to recruitment to IT professions and science subjects. An important part of our activities is to work to ensure that all young people of school age have the opportunity to learn programming and become familiar with computer science as a subject. There are currently approx. 160 coding clubs in Norway run by volunteers in their free time.

10 regional science centers

There are 10 regional science centers in Norway:

• You the World (Porsgrunn)
• INSPIRIA Science Center (Sarpsborg)
• The Jærmuseet (Sandnes and Nærbø)
• Northern Norwegian Science Center (Tromsø and Alta)
• Oslo Science Center (Norwegian Technical Museum)
• WildVite (Bergen)
• Vitenparken (Campus Ås)
• The Science Center Innlandet (Gjøvik)
• The Science Center of Southern Norway (Arendal and Kristiansand)
• Trondheim Science Center (Trondheim)

These 10 have collectively been commissioned by the government to implement a teaching program to increase programming understanding in grades 5-7, as part of the technological school bag. The program will reach over 100,000 children over the next four years. The project is led by INSPIRIA.

Current online resources

• sciencecenter.no
• kidsakoder.no
• sparebankstiftelsen.no
• udir.no/kvalitet-og-kompetanse/nasjonale-satsinger/den-teknologiske-skolesekken

For more information, contact:

Geir Endregard, CEO at Inspiria, tel: 958 46 220
Torgeir Waterhouse, Director of Internet and New Media at ICT-Norway, tel: 416 12 096
Sissel Karlsen, Head of Gifts, Sparebankstiftelsen DNB, tel: 900 65 200