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The Children’s Congress: A Benefit to All Levels
of Schooling by Strengthening Computational
Thinking
Sara Hinterplattner, Jakob S. Skogø, Corinna Kröhn, and Barbara Sabitzer
Johannes Kepler University Linz STEM Education, Linz, Austria
Email: {sara.hinterplattner, jakob.skogoe, corinna.kroehn, barbara.sabitzer}@jku.at
Abstract—The Children’s Congress is an event, developed to
meet a demand for strengthening computational thinking
and to increase the interest in STEAM subjects. This
congress brings teachers, university students and pupils
together to work interdisciplinary on real-life problems.
During these proceedings, the pupils slip into the role of
researchers and scientists, supported by their teachers,
university staff and university students. In every project
team, at least one student from the Honors program of the
Johannes Kepler University in Linz takes part. This support
helps the pupils both in their projects and in their personal
development, through mentoring by the talent students of
the university. To find out more about these benefits and to
improve the congress for the next years the Honors students
were asked to give feedback after the congress. In these
interviews, the Honors students described the Children’s
Congress as a very inspiring and motivating project for all
the participants. The results show that the students
experienced a lot of appreciation through the work with the
pupils, and that they faced many new challenges. They see
many benefits for the pupils, starting from the increasing
academical knowledge to skills like team- and time
management. Furthermore, the benefit of getting used to
computational thinking was described. Besides the
advantages for the pupils, benefits for teachers were
mentioned. Overall, the results show that the Children’s
Congress successfully combines computational thinking,
real-life problems, interdisciplinarity, project work and
mentoring, benefitting all participants involved.
Index Terms—computational thinking, STEAM education,
interdisciplinarity, mentoring programs, gifted education
I. INTRODUCTION
When we think about digital education, the first thing
that comes to mind is the computer. Nowadays, pupils
have integrated digital devices in their everyday life, such
as mobile phones, apps and wearables. So, it should go
without saying that we must strengthen the pupils’
technological understanding and furthermore show them
possible ethical outcomes or co-occurring social aspects
of digital life. Subsequently, Jeanette Wing defines the
term "Computational Thinking" as a fundamental skill for
everyone. It is best described as a problem-solving
process with distinctive problem-solving techniques and
Manuscript received July 18, 2020; revised October 10, 2020.
general intellectual practices. It covers solving problems,
designing systems, and understanding human behavior by
drawing on the concepts of computers [1].
Before 2002, digital education policies in the European
Union aimed to improve infrastructures in schools [2].
The EU ICT Cluster study from 2010 shows that the ratio
between digital devices and the number of learners
decreased significantly. Additionally, the reliability and
the speed of internet connections increased throughout
the European Union [3]. Second-generation digital
education policies (from 2002 on-wards) focused more on
educational modernization and transformed the
terminology from "e-learning" to "educational
innovation". In 2011, all European countries had digital
education policies in place, either as standalone policies
or as part of a national ICT strategy. The strategic weight
of these policies remained on nurturing students’ digital
competences, justified by future economic benefits [4].
What this all amounts to is that computational thinking is
on the rise, likewise in European schools.
Computational methods and models give pupils the
courage to solve problems and design systems that no one
would be capable of tackling alone [1]. By adding those
concepts to the pupil’s understanding of their everyday
life, we aim to increase interest in informatics, correct
possible misconceptions and work against still existing
fears and inhibitions concerning computer science and
technology [5].
The Children´s Congress was developed in 2016 and is
held as an event to show pupils the diversity of the
STEAM field. Pupils decide on a real-life problem and
try to find solutions through computational thinking, with
the help of teachers, students and university staff. In 2018
a total amount of 165 pupils with 9 teachers and 16
students worked on 8 different projects at the Children’s
Congress in Linz (Austria). Out of the 16 participating
students, 10 students were part of the Honors Program at
the Johannes Kepler University Linz.
The Honors Programs is designed for gifted university
students who have the motivation and ability to work
more than their regular programs offer. This includes not
only academic challenges but also aspects to broaden
their personal development and their interdisciplinary
thinking. The Honors Program participants receive
individual support and soft skills training, gain
experience and competences in scientific work and
International Journal of Learning and Teaching Vol. 6, No. 4, December 2020
© 2020 International Journal of Learning and Teaching 241
doi: 10.18178/ijlt.6.4.241-246
research and develop their creativity. This is done by
letting the students carry out individual projects that
deepen their areas of expertise with complementary
subject areas, broadening their horizons. They can
interact with other participants and get in touch with top
executives at the Johannes Kepler University who will
talk about their research, their careers and share their
personal experiences. Besides their own scientific
training the students also support younger gifted students
with their projects. One example of their tutoring work is
the Children's Congress at the university. In this annual
event participating children can slip into the roles as
researchers and present the results of their projects
accomplished with the help of the Honors students. The
projects stand out due to their creative ways of
implementing computational thinking across the STEAM
subjects. Besides supporting the pupils with their
academic competences, the Honors students show the
children how to embrace and utilize their giftedness.
After the congress all participants were asked for
feedback about their experiences. In this paper the results
of the Honors Program participants will be examined.
With their answers the following questions will be
clari1fied:
How do the Honors students describe and evaluate
the work with the pupils and teachers for the
Children’s Congress and the Children’s Congress
itself?
Which impacts do the Honors students describe
that the Children’s Congress has on the pupils, on
the teachers and on themselves?
Which role does computational thinking play in
the projects from the perspective of the Honors
students?
II. THE CHILDREN’S CONGRESS
A. Background
The Children’s Congress is a concept developed in
2016 by one of the authors at her previous university [5].
Launching in 2018 in Linz, this project is planned as a
yearly, three-staged event. The main goal of the
Children’s Congress is to show pupils and students the
broadness of the STEAM field, and to spark the pupils’
creativity and curiosity within the field, by using
computational thinking to find solutions to real-life
problems. The event is held by the Johannes Kepler
University in Linz, where the congress itself is hosted.
The Children’s Congress is held for pupils from 2nd to
8th grade from schools in Upper Austria. They are tasked
with finding a real-life problem and a solution to this,
utilizing a variety of the STEAM field’s many subjects
such as arts, biology, computer science or mathematics.
With the focus on computational thinking, the pupils find
a problem and develop a solution. The pupils then present
their problems, findings and solutions at the final event of
the Children’s Congress to each other, as well as to a jury,
that selects a winning project.
Finding and working with real-life problems is a hard
task that demands a deep understanding of the problem,
as well as a good awareness of how to work towards a
solution. To make sure that all participants, pupils,
students and teachers alike, are well prepared for this
process, the Children’s Congress is established as a three-
stage event. Therefore, all participants should work with
computational thinking concepts within the STEAM
subjects in a problem-based manner.
B. Aims and Contents
The Children’s Congress aims to inspire pupils,
students and teachers to work with computational
thinking, as well as promoting the concept of working in
an inter- or transdisciplinary way [6]. It is a core value of
the Children’s Congress that the project should challenge
and benefit everyone involved. This unique aim sets the
event apart from other learning activities by focusing not
only on the pupils but also on in-service training for the
pupils’ teachers and for gifted students at the Johannes
Kepler University in Linz. Focusing on the learning
outcome for all participants shapes the Children’s
Congress culture and form. This resulted, among other
things, in the three staged structure of the event.
The three stages consist of the kick-off event, the
preparation phase and the congress itself. The three stages
help to ensure the learning outcome of all participants, by
giving the teachers, students and pupils time and
opportunities to interact, challenge each other and give
the students the opportunity for mentoring the pupils in
their work as scientists and researchers.
The kick-off event is the first meeting between the
students of the Honors Program and the teachers they will
work with. At the kick-off event the research questions
are chosen, and the students pick which of the projects
they can see themselves in. It is important that the
students get to choose a project where they can use their
current knowledge to assist the pupils and teachers. When
the students have been paired with the teachers and pupils,
their work within the teams begin and they help the
pupils to further define their research questions and
provide suggestions to how the pupils can work towards
finding solutions.
The second part is the preparation phase. The project
groups will work towards producing a product that solves,
prevents or helps with their specific problem. To further
qualify the projects, the project teams participate in at
least one workshop at the JKU COOL-Lab, a teaching-
learning lab that hosts workshops about computational
thinking for both pupils and teachers [7]. There they get
introductions to computer science concepts such as
modeling, logic, encryption, encoding etc. In this
progress the pupils, students and teachers will get training
in computational thinking to make sure that they have the
necessary skills and understanding that is necessary to
work within the project as a team in the following months.
This is a keystone in the Children’s Congress and is
essential for the learning outcome for everyone - pupils,
students and their teachers. During the preparation phase,
the students visit the pupils and teachers at their schools,
and work alongside them on their projects. There the
students get to practice both their academic and their soft
skills, such as communication, cooperation and
mentoring.
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The last part is the congress itself. The pupils present
the projects to each other and for the judging committee.
Both the problem, the process and the final product is
presented and explained in seven to ten-minute
presentations. The pupils switch between presenting and
observing presentations. In the end, the best projects of
the primary and secondary schools receive awards.
After the event, all participants are asked to give
feedback to help evaluate the Children’s Congress to
improve it for the following years.
III. METHODOLOGY
In total 16 university students supported the children
and the teachers in the development of their projects. 10
out of these 16 were part of the Honors Program as
described above. These 10 students were asked separately
after the Children’s Congress about their experiences. 5
of them are female, 5 are male. At the time of the
interviews they were all between 18 and 20 years old and
in their first year of their studies. They were all students
of different subjects in the STEM field and had training
in computational thinking in educational context.
IV. RESULTS
A. Evaluation
The students worked in cooperation with the pupils
and got support from the teachers of the schools and from
professors of the university. Therefore, they had to
balance expectations not only according to their own
ambitions, but also within the expectations of the pupils,
the teachers and their professors.
The students described the collaboration with the
pupils as very good. When they were asked to estimate in
percent how good the pupils cooperated in the class, most
of the students chose values above 90%. The extent to
what the pupils were involved in the project work and
implementation was also described as very successful and
when asked for a percentage most of the students
described values above 95%, with three students saying
100%. One student said that it was amazing how
independently and motivated the pupils worked at the
project. They were very easy to handle, and it was a great
experience to work with them. Another student also
highlighted the good mood in the class and the good
working environment. One student reported that the
pupils even worked during the weekends because they
were so motivated. Summing up, all students described
their pupils as very motivated and noted that they did a
lot of work on their own. None of the students described
the pupils in the project in a negative fashion.
Interestingly, the working processes during the projects
has been observed as being very different between the
various classes, that all selected different starting points.
These starting points were chosen by the teachers: Group
work, fieldtrip out into nature, fieldtrip to a museum,
teacher talk, experiments at the university, research in the
library, joint brainstorming session. In one class the
teachers chose to let the pupils manage the whole project
planning by themselves. Naturally, very different
processes developed out of these various starting points.
Though different, the students were all very happy and
satisfied with the way their pupils took part in the
projects.
The collaboration between students and teachers varied
from short talks during classes, to five extra meetings,
besides the mandatory program. All students were in
contact with the teachers per e-mail and felt well prepared
for the projects. The students that had no extra meetings
with the teacher expressed that they had no need for it.
When the students were asked to estimate the quality of
the collaboration with the teachers in percentages, where
0% is poor and 100% is perfect, most of them stated
values above 95% with two students saying 100%. One
student highlighted that it was great to work alongside a
teacher because every idea she had was taken up by the
teacher which made her feel very appreciated. Three of
the students also commended the teachers for their
motivating and inspiring way of teaching. One student
went on to say that in her opinion the teacher was the
main reason for a successful project, not because he did
everything, but because he could motivate the children
throughout the project phase, and that he was always
there for the pupils if they needed advise.
Collaboration with the university professors was rare,
because the need for it was minimal. This was affirmed
by every student. They had a kick-off meeting at the
beginning, where the background and aims of the project
was explained, and another meeting at a workshop about
computational thinking. The students had the possibility
of getting support by one of the authors who was the
main responsible person of the Children’s Congress and
oversaw the computational thinking component in every
project. In addition, the students could consult the
coordinator of the Honors Program. Four of the students
took the chance to get mentoring support by one of the
two. The other students said it was not necessary.
Regardless, all students answered that they felt well
supported during the project even if they didn’t take
advantage of the extra offers provided to them.
When summarizing the whole cooperation of the
project teams, all the students were satisfied. One student
added that it was very inspiring to see the enthusiasm and
cooperation of all parties and the joy from the progress of
the project.
The specific tasks the students had in the project
depended mainly on the teachers. Three of the students
described their part as administrative work like keeping
supervision, assisting with the use of technologies or
support by creating a project plan. One student described
himself as the “support person”. Whenever there was a
problem, the pupils came to him for help. He helped with
finding a project idea, solving logistical problems and
designing the program code. Two other students
described their parts similarly without using the term
“support person”. The other students had a main part in
the projects and did a lot of research with the kids,
showing them how they could solve their respective
problems. Therefore, the amount of time used in the
preparation phase of the Children’s Congress varied
between 8 and 30 hours with those students describing
themselves as the project leaders, working the most hours.
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When the students evaluated the final event of the
Children’s Congress only, they stated several ideas to
improve the next Children’s Congress. Evaluating the
final event with percentages from 0% for the worst to
100% for the best, most of them gave the event over 80%,
the mean was around 80%. Nobody graded the event with
100%, and everybody had ideas for improvement. Six
students said that the time management needed
improvement, since there wasn’t enough time to see each
project and you had a fixed amount of time for each
project, without opportunity to stay longer at a project
that you found particularly interesting. Just one student
said that the time given to see the projects was sufficient.
One student stated that some classes didn’t stick to the
schedule, giving the presenting groups a disadvantage,
because they had less time to show all aspects of their
project.
Moreover, the students were asked if they would join
the Children’s Congress again. All of them said that they
really enjoyed the work for the projects, but not all could
see themselves doing exactly the same procedures again,
even though they found the experience giving and were
happy about having been a part of the Children’s
Congress. Some students would prefer to bring their own
project ideas to the classes, so that the projects would fit
better to their expertise.
In summary, all students were very positive about the
collaboration and motivation of both pupils and teachers
and appreciated the possibility to further collaborate and
get mentoring by the professors.
B. Impacts
The students described several aspects in the
Children’s Congress project that had impact on the pupils,
on the teachers and/or on themselves in their interviews.
The impacts on the pupils were all described as very
positive. The academical benefits were described as
significant. They learned a lot about their project topic
and its surrounding fields by doing research and getting
support from the teachers and students. The student
working on a fingerprint topic told us that neither the
pupils nor they would have been introduced to the issue
of fingerprint recognitions in their regular classes. But
after the project they all had a lot of knowledge about
how to preserve a fingerprint, what is unique about
fingerprints, how you could describe fingerprints and
how you could compare two fingerprints. The students
combined this knowledge with their background in arts,
mathematics and computer science and recognized the
advantages that interdisciplinary thinking brings. Another
student saw the benefits in the practical and innovative
use of technology and to raise the interest in STEM
subjects.
At the Children’s Congress itself the pupils could see
the projects of the other groups and get in touch with
different technologies and unique ideas. This is an
additional contribution that wouldn’t have been easy to
realize in a regular classroom. The students were asked to
estimate the growth of academical knowledge for the
pupils in percentages from 0% to 100% where 0% stands
for no grow and 100% for enormous growth. Again, most
students chose a value above 80%. Besides increasing the
academical knowledge the students also mentioned
impacts that lead to increasing social or general skills. In
addition, the students highlighted the benefits of getting
in touch with unknown technologies and their impact in
these early years of the pupils’ time in the educational
system. One student mentioned that nowadays the use of
those technologies is essential and that pupils should get
in touch with these technologies as soon as possible.
Noting that working in groups on projects is not that
common in the early years of education, one student saw
a big advantage in practicing team management, time
management as well as presentation skills. Another
student described that the project work helped the class to
strengthen their class community.
Another benefit mentioned was the sense of
achievements. The students said that they felt like the
pupils really enjoyed working with them. In these
mentoring situations, the students could help with their
expertise and the pupils felt like they really got support
and were taken seriously. Especially in the settings where
younger gifted students met older gifted students, the
students could share not only academical knowledge, but
also assistance and support in their personal development.
The students all thought that the teachers got new ideas
for their regular classes. That could lead to benefits for
the teachers but also to another impact of the pupils who
would benefit from good ideas and new practices of
modern teaching. One student stated that the teacher he
worked with decided to start using robots every year to
strengthen computational thinking.
Considering the impacts for the students themselves, it
was surprising that none of the students had done a
project with pupils before. Even in their time as pupils,
there was no possibility to be a mentor for younger pupils
at their schools. Besides the benefits for the pupils, this
cooperation between younger and older students leads to
a lot of experience and expertise for the mentors
themselves. As mentioned before, this setting lets older
gifted students meet with younger gifted students. The
older students can learn a lot about the development of
giftedness and can see how inspiring their way can be for
younger students. This might cause motivation for their
own academic work, as four of the students had to admit.
One student mentioned that he saw himself in this group
“craving for knowledge” and that he had to recap all of
his experiences of being gifted in a school class. Also, as
mentioned before, the students felt very appreciated by
the teachers and pupils, by further increasing their own
motivation. To see the enthusiasm and cooperation of all
parties and the excitement surrounding the project was
described as inspiring. One student stated that it was a
real pleasure to meet and get to know the pupils, and that
they have grown dear to him. At the Children’s Congress
he said that he was very surprised and proud of the
project of his pupils. Another student added that she
never stood in front of a class before and that she really
enjoyed it when she could feel their interest and
motivation. Five students described that it was really
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challenging to explain difficult topics to children, because
they had never worked with children before and only had
academical discussions with peers or professors, but
never as a mentor. Summing up this new experience of
doing a project with younger gifted students was a new
experience for the students who were used to deepen their
academical knowledge in their specific field of studies.
All students had to admit that working with a school class
brings lots of challenges that they didn’t expect - like
how to handle different ideas or different interests of the
pupils.
All students described the project as an experience
with huge benefits that helped them to evolve both
personally and as students and coming professionals. All
students appreciated the possibility to participate and
were happy that they chose to be a part of the project.
C. Computational Thinking
Some aspects were already mentioned in the
paragraphs before, because the strengthening of
computational thinking leads to benefits for pupils and
teachers. This was also described by all the students
involved. Surprisingly the students estimated the
computer science part of their projects as quite low. The
highest value a student stated was 60%, the mean was
around 44%. Even though all projects were assigned to
the subject computer science, the students discovered
various other aspects in their projects. They listed
different school subjects that contributed in their projects
like arts, biology, chemistry, drama, ethics, handicraft,
German, mathematics, physics or psychology. To find out
more about their attitude towards interdisciplinarity,
students were asked if they found the combination of
subjects useful. Most of them described it as very
effective, none of them thought that it is not.
Concerning the growth of computational thinking
skills, most of the students said that the pupils´ learning
curve was steep. One student mentioned that it was very
interesting watching the children handling their problems
in the project and finding out that computer science was
everywhere around them. The increase of computational
thinking skills for the teachers were even described as
bigger.
V. CONCLUSION
Summing up, the Children’s Congress 2018 in Linz
was very successful in strengthening computational
thinking skills, motivating pupils for STEAM subjects
and supporting gifted students at the university. The
feedback from the students was very positive and they
provided various suggestions for improvements, mainly
about the final event. The students had different tasks in
their projects ranging from support persons to the main
responsible person for the project management. These
scopes of tasks depended mostly on the corresponding
teachers. In addition, the students described various
challenges during the project phase. Especially the basic
project work with such young pupils was new and
challenging to them. They all admitted that the pupils, the
teachers and they themselves learned a lot during the
project phase. On the one hand the students increased
their own academical knowledge and on the other hand
trained social skills, which was also described as very
fruitful. The students also noticed a steep learning curve
in the aspects of computational thinking – for pupils as
well as for teachers. But they didn’t describe the
importance of computer science as that big in their
project.
VI. OUTLOOK
The next paper plans to evaluate the pupils´ feedback
and their evaluation of the project. The Children’s
Congress should become an annual event at the university
in Linz and therefore the evaluation plays an increasing
role. The final event of the Children’s Congress 2019
took place in June in Linz and was again a very inspiring
experience for all participants. Because of the feedback of
the students described in this paper and the feedback of
the pupils that will be published soon, some changes were
made to the concept. The evaluation of these changes and
the Children’s Congress 2019 in general is in progress. In
the course of this the two Children’s Congresses will also
be compared.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Sara Hinterplattner and Jakob Skogø conducted the
research, while Corinna Kröhn and Barbara Sabitzer took
part in the organization, development and implementation
of the Children´s Congress. All four authors wrote the
paper together and approved the final version.
REFERENCES
[1] J. M. Wing, “Computational Thinking,” in Proc.
Communications of the ACM, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 33-35, May 2006.
[2] J. Conrads, M. Rasmussen, N. Winters, A. Geniet, and L. Langer,
Digital Education Policies in Europe and Beyond: Key Design
Principles for More Effective Policies. C. Redecker, P. Kampylis,
M. Bacigalupo, Y. Punie (ed.), EUR 29000 EN, Publications
Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2017.
[3] EU ICT Cluster. Learning, innovation and ICT: Lessons learned
by the ICT cluster Education & Training 2010 Programme.
https://erte.dge.mec.pt/sites/default/files/Recursos/Estudos/key_le
ssons_ict_cluster_final_report.pdf
[4] Eurydice (2011). Key Data on Learning and Innovation through
ICT at School in Europe. https://www.csee-
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[5] B. Sabitzer and H. Demarle-Meusel, “A congress for children and
computational thinking for everyone,” presented at the 13th
Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education,
Potsdam, Germany, October 2018.
[6] S. Hinterplattner, B. Sabitzer, and J. S. Skogø, “The children's
congress at the JKU Linz: young researchers and interdisciplinary
projects,” presented at Bridges Conference, Linz, Austria, July
16-19, 2019.
[7] B. Sabitzer, H. Demarle-Meusel, and C. Painer, “A COOL lab for
teacher education,” presented at the ATEE Spring Conference,
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International Journal of Learning and Teaching Vol. 6, No. 4, December 2020
© 2020 International Journal of Learning and Teaching
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Copyright © 2020 by the authors. This is an open access article
distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-
NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any
medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-
commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Sara Hinterplattner received her Master’s
degree in computer science and mathematics
education from the Johannes Kepler
University Linz, Austria in 2008.
She is a Teacher for computer science,
mathematics and gifted education at a high
school for over 10 years now. Besides the
teaching, she is a University Assistant and a
PhD Candidate at the Department for STEM
Education at the Johannes Kepler University
Linz, Austria. Her main research area is gifted education. In this role,
she is involved in various talent development programs and leads the
JKU Honors Program, a program for gifted students at the university.
Jakob S. Skogø is doing his master’s degree
in computer science and mathematics
education at the Johannes Kepler University
Linz, Austria.
He is a Scientific Project Assistant at the
Department for STEM Education at the
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
since 2019. He is part of the JKU COOL Lab,
a teaching-learning lab that fosters
computational thinking and digital literacy.
His research areas include gamification in educational context,
computational thinking, game-based learning and gifted education.
Corinna Kröhn received her Master’s degree
in computer science and mathematics
education from the Johannes Kepler
University Linz, Austria in 2012.
She was teaching computer science and
mathematics at a high school. Currently is a
University Assistant and PhD Student at the
Department of STEM Education at the
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. She
is working for the COOL Lab, a teaching-
learning lab that fosters computational
thinking and digital literacy. Her research interests include basic digital
education, computational thinking and digital teaching and learning
methods.
Barbara Sabitzer received her PhD in
educational psychology and her habilitation in
didactics with focus on informatics from the
Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt, Austria
in 2009. She was Teacher of informatics and
foreign languages in a vocational high school.
Currently she is a Professor of Instructional
Technology at the Johannes Kepler University
Linz, Austria. She leads the JKU COOL Lab,
a teaching-learning lab that fosters
computational thinking and digital literacy.
Her research interests include basic digital education, computational
thinking, gifted education and digital teaching and learning methods.
International Journal of Learning and Teaching Vol. 6, No. 4, December 2020
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246
