Oportunidades Públicas

Design and Research: Computational Thinking from a Phone

Join a project that brings physical computing to schools that can't afford class sets of kits. The idea: rebuild the hands-on, tangible value of physical computing using the smartphone students already own, plus everyday materials like cardboard, programming with Blockly blocks on the Protobject platform. This lowers the cost barrier and brings real equity to Chilean classrooms.

Your role is to own the quality of a progression of several activities: reviewing, iterating, and redesigning them against clear computational-thinking objectives, refining the texts, the pedagogical progression, and the equivalence check between the phone version and a micro:bit/MakeCode one. This is real iterative design with concrete classroom impact.

You'll gain experience in instructional design, CS education, and mentored research, with the chance to contribute to a paper in progress. We're looking for someone meticulous and creative, interested in CS didactics and physical computing.

As an undergraduate research placement (IPre), it is curricular and calls for committed dedication, like any course. The project also has funding to recognise, with financial support, the exceptional contributions of especially motivated students who take on a standout role.