Exploring the Sustainable Development Goals through Coding

The theme of sustainable development underpins the initiative ensuring that CS can be integrated in a holistic way across the curriculum. The cross-curricular nature of the project cultivates an understanding of global citizenship and sustainability and how technology can address these issues. Students explore the goals in a fun and engaging way through the hands-on creation of games and embedded system applications to solve real world problems. Through the use and understanding of artificial intelligence, data collection and analytics students will participate in active learning experiences, encouraging their creativity and curiosity. Similarly, teachers will gain experience in these curricular areas developing competence and confidence in teaching coding, computational thinking and sustainable development.

The project targets primary students from 3rd to 6th class and underrepresented groups in the STEM discipline, including girls, neurodiverse students and those from social, economic or educational disadvantage. It provides an opportunity for urban and rural schools to engage with a third level university and industry partners in an innovative and unique way, removing the barriers to further education and promoting career pathways in STEAM areas.

This project supported by Research Ireland and TUS promotes the effective use and embedding of digital technologies in the Primary Classroom.