Project BitSchool [1], developed by the Scuola Bilingue di Benevento [2], will participate in the 8th edition of the Global Junior Challenge [3] in the “Up to 10 years old” category. The project, which aims to develop the interest of children for scientific and technological subjects, is organised in three phases. It introduces children to programming stimulating not only rational thought, but their creativity, communication and problem-solving skills, too.

During the course of the project, the children acquired confidence with basic electronic components and developed simple circuits to understand the use of everyday electronics. They also studied the basics of coding through the use of MIT’s Scratch and brought the two together by using an Arduino chipset and Scratch variant S4A to develop systems interacting between computers and the external world, such as traffic lights and musical instruments.

The project was supported by a number of associations (ISF Informatici Senza Frontiere, LILIS Laboratorio per l'Informatica Libera Sannita, CoderDojo di Napoli) and schools (ITIS Bosco Lucarelli) that shared competences, experiences and their passion for IT.