Project Square

Launched in 2018, Project Square is an open education initiative championing computational thinking as a transversal skill in the context of human smart cities.

In a rapidly changing world, understanding the world in computational terms is an increasingly valuable asset for everybody. As research shows, a computational thinking mindset opens endless possibilities for creating and developing solutions that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Project Square came to life with a strong mission to democratize computational thinking in Swiss public primary schools. Informed by research and through participatory design, a large group of contributors created and iterated innovative pedagogical activities with thousands of primary school teachers and students across Switzerland.

After a four year piloting phase and based on the research and development by the team at EPFL LEARN Center, Project Square was included in the pioneering EduNum project in the Canton of Vaud and became part of the curriculum for 5th and 6th grades in 2022.

Links:
Décodage
Discover Project Square
Kick-off Activities
Create Activities
Robotics Activities

Would you like to bring Project Square to your school or become a co-creator? You can register for testing sessions through the Swiss EdTech Collider National Testbed Programm, or join Project Square on Roteco,

Project Square CC BY-NC-SA

Contributors

Educreators Foundation
Cristina Riesen, initiator, lead, design and development
Dr. Franziska Spring, learning activities designer
Gregory Pepper, design and development
Emma Segal, graphic design
Aneta Peckelová, web design and development
Ricardo Monagas, web development

Contributors SUPSI
Serena Cangiano, lead researcher and designer
Lorenzo Romagnoli, interaction designer
Luca Belfiore, visual designer and research assistant
Valentina Meldi, graphic designer
Marco Lurati, co-manager of FabLab SUPSI, expert fabrication of physical products
Massimo Botta, head of research, design project supervisor
Prof. Dr. Matthias Hauswirth, USI Computer Science
Dr. Alessandro Giusti, researcher at IDSIA Institute of Artificial Intelligence USI/SUPSI

Contributors EPFL LEARN Center, Robotics Departments, HEP Vaud, Roteco
Prof. Dr. Francesco Mondada, Scientific Director EPFL LEARN, EPFL Robotics
Frédérique Chessel-Lazzarotto, Direction EPFL LEARN Formation Enseignantes VD
Morgane Chevalier, researcher computational thinking EPFL LEARN, enseignante HEP
Marc Lafuente Martinez, researcher computational thinking EPFl LEARN
Evgeniia Bonnet, researcher EPFL LEARN
Melissa Skweres, collaborator EPFL LEARN
Sophia Reyes Mury, community manager Roteco
Christophe Dumas, chargé de projets
Sebastian Actis-Datta, FabLab HEP

Contributors ETH Zurich
Prof. Dr. Manu Kapur, Scientific Director ETH Learning Sciences Lab
Dragan Trninic, researcher learning sciences ETH
Julia Chatain, researcher learning sciences ETH

Contributors HumanIST Institute, Smart City Lab University of St. Gallen
Edy Portmann, Swiss Post Professor at the University of Fribourg and Member of the Board of the Swiss Informatics Society
Sara d’Onofrio, Researcher, Smart City Lab