At MSP, we don’t just promote science and technology, we bring them closer to students through actions.
Therefore, together with our partners at Bit&R, we organized a series of activities between March and May aimed at familiarizing primary and middle school students with the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence and programming (web and interactive game development). The interactive game programming was made possible with the support of schools, which provided access to computer labs, and the courses were met with great enthusiasm by the children.
Digital Skills: A Pillar in Professional Development
Although 90% of all jobs require at least basic digital skills, only 56% of the adult population in the EU possesses this level of digital competence, significantly below the 2030 target of 80%, as highlighted by a statement from the European Parliament Committee in the Basic Skills Action Plan.
These figures indicate that it is important to focus on preparing students for tomorrow’s digital challenges and to support them in developing skills in line with technological advancements.
What is the Educational Pillar of the MSP ?
The MSP educational pillar aims to facilitate dialogue between students and experts who can inspire children towards STEM careers. To achieve this, the Măgurele Science Park Association collaborates with entities offering opportunities in this regard, in addition to MSP-branded activities and events such as 3D modeling and printing competitions, student visits to research institutes, classroom visits by researchers, 3D modeling and printing workshops, either in class or at various national or international events like the Researchers’ Night ReCoNect and Astrofest Festival.
The activities discussed below were carried out through a collaboration between MSP, which provided the educational community and the team managing the educational pillar, and Bit&R, which represented the technological core that transformed technology and its complexity into an accessible form for children.
What is Bit&R?
Bit&R is a programming platform for children aged 8 to 12. With its help, young learners discover new things and develop logic and abstract thinking by building games, guided by Robert, the first AI co-pilot designed for safe, precise, and adaptive learning.
The activities organized by MSP alongside Bit&R targeted schools in the Bucharest region and focused on training sessions in web programming, artificial intelligence, and interactive programming, held in the school’s computer labs.
What Did Students Learn in These Workshops?
In the web programming sessions, students learned:
- Why web programming is interesting, how websites and other applications used at school or home are built, basic concepts of HTML (structure), CSS (design), and JavaScript (interactivity), the code behind a web page;
- Careers and opportunities in web development, how websites support education and social good, AI, and future trends in web programming.
In the session dedicated to the responsible use of artificial intelligence, students learned:
- What AI (Artificial Intelligence) is, how it works, AI in games, chatbots, and art generation, different types of AI, how AI is changing the world (self-driving cars, robots, healthcare);
- Careers in AI and why it’s important to know about it today.
In the interactive session, students engaged in practical activities related to introductory concepts of interactive programming using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Among the schools that enrolled in this initiative are: Ioan Bădescu Middle School, Politehnica Bucharest Middle School, and the Romanian-Finnish High School.
Looking to the Future with Optimism and Enthusiasm
We thank our colleagues, Laurențiu Dinu and Florentina Buică from MSP, and the trainer from Bit&R, Diana Miron, who introduced students to the world of artificial intelligence and programming. Some children chose to stay during breaks when the bell rang to continue advancing in the programming they had just discovered.
We hope it was an engaging educational experience for the students and look forward to seeing them in future educational activities.
