Game Programming in Primary Schools: Guidelines for a Project- Based Learning Path

In the "Fate il vostro gioco" project, students in the last year of an Italian primary school have been involved in a game making activity, using Scratch. The aim of the project was to define guidelines for teachers to help them design a series of lessons aimed at developing basic computational thinking skills. According to the learning by doing approach, students learn through an active participation in project-based activities, allowing them to make new connections and generate new ideas. In the first phase of the project, an introduction to coding with Scratch was carried out. In the second phase, students, divided into groups developed a game according to the requests of a "client", related to game characteristics and the type of game. Each group chose the game they wished to develop among a restricted number of possibilities. At the end of the project, a presentation was organized involving families, other classes and teachers. Scaffolding was provided to all groups according to their needs: examples of complete games were shown, the game elements were identified and, in some cases, a closer guidance was given. A lesson involving the whole class was devoted to solving some of the most difficult issues related to the development of some games. Big differences with respect to students' abilities and level of independence in managing their work was detected. Qualitative data was collected during each meeting: two trainee teachers observed the students working in groups, and students were asked to fill in a diary after each meeting, stating their opinions, problems, plans, etc. Based on the collected data and the problems that arose, guidelines for primary teachers wanting to design an intervention aimed at game making for their class are being produced. These address the organization of the groups and of their work, indications for the observations as well as the level and type of scaffolding to be offered according to the planned activities and the students' needs.