The Mystery Train escape game teaches children the basics of coding in Finland
The Finnish national broadcasting company Yle has created the Mystery Train game, which teaches coding logic and artificial intelligence. The game is primarily intended for 11–16-year-olds, but older gaming enjoyers can also have fun with it. Computational thinking plays a vital role.
In the Mystery Train game the players need to solve the mystery of a malfunctiong, futuristic train with the help of a friendly robot before it crashes. The theme of the game revolves around programming, as research shows games are the most inspiring and motivating way to learn computational thinking skills.
Consciously developing computational thinking skills helps students succeed better in a technologically advanced society. It strengthens programming skills and develops problem-solving and logical thinking abilities. The national core curriculum for basic education in Finland strongly emphasizes broad skills such as thinking, learning to learn, and problem-solving, which computational thinking also falls into.
Computational thinking can be divided into three perspectives:
1) The ability to develop solutions that work with digital devices.
2) A problem-solving mindset.
3) Thinking skills that can be applied to real-world problems.
In short, it is the skill of working with machines, practical knowledge applicable in everyday life in the digital world, and the ability to think creatively. It is a broad and essential skill for the future.
Yle Oppiminen has also created an educational package with teachers, providing tips for teachers on solving tasks in the Mystery Train game, more background information on computational thinking, and tasks that can be done after playing the game. These tasks help students further solidify the content of the game, enabling them to transfer what they have learned into practical programming skills and thinking. If you are curious to test the game, check it out here – it is available in English.
How is computational thinking covered in your curriculum? And what kind of teaching methods are you using to teach it? More blog posts can be found here.
Source // Yle
Does a teacher need to be a good programmer to be able to teach coding? No. In order to promote the meaningful learning of your students, you need to understand, what you are teaching and why. One option is to take an online course “Basics of Coding for school” – this course is there to help you with this pedagogical goal!