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About Coding in Finland
Schools in Finland are encouraged to teach and promote coding, and the Kytöpuisto School is doing exactly that. On top of competing in the Kodu Kup, the school also held a special “hour of coding” were all 5-6th graders were taught basic steps on Kodu.
Finland Kodu Kup ambassador, Tiina Kähärä, knows how important it is to learn coding at a young age: “During the last three years that I have been taking part on European Schoolnet´s projects InGenious and Scientix, I have found out how important is to promote STEM subjects already in primary level.
Meet the Team:
- Rita, 12 years old
- Saimi, 12 years old
- Anh, 12 years old
- Jenna, 12 years old
All 6th graders took part in the competition and 6 entries were sent to KoduKup. Girls were exited about creating the game and tasks were divided by all four. Anh was the designer of the game, Saimi created the cover, while the rest of the team collaborated to create a winning game.
“Creating the game was fun, even if it wasn’t a competition I would have liked it” says Rita. “Now I am more interested in coding and would even consider working with that more!”
“When we heard that we won the trip to Brussels, I started to scream and called my dad. He thought first that something was wrong because I couldn´t speak, I was so happy. I started to cry,” says Jenna.
Project: ‘Girly Mars’
In this game the player‘s robot tries to reach the Pink Factory. The robot must avoid rockets and obstacles in order to reach the factory and win the game!
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Tiina Kähärä
“I am currently interested in promoting STEM-subjects and am also involved with InGenious and Scientix projects (European Schoolnet). In the last two years I have been taking part in designing a new national Curriculum for Finland 2016 with a science team for primary school.We have taken part on many activities on STEM and now winning the opportunity to compete in Brussels with my students is a paricular prize for us. This is the last year these pupils are with me before moving on to secondary school and I truly hope that I could have been able to inspire them into STEM studies. In the last two years I have also been taking part in designing the new national curriculum 2016 and I have found it a very challenging and interesting job to do. Finland will be lacking on future scientists, and it´s very important to have inspiring teaching. This kind of competition is needed. Pupils can show that they are able, and they realize that the future is something to await. They feel they are respected and they can achieve something memoriable by taking part. All they need is encouregement and they can succeed.”
Read more about the team’s journey here.
