Children in movement towards STEAM: Coding and shapes at kindergarten

In this paper, we present a project that involved two classes of kindergarten children and their teachers in a teaching experiment focused on the development of spatial and computational thinking using a simple robot (Blue Bot). We focus on the design of activities, which also make use of playful movement experiences, with the aim of creating an inclusive environment in which children aged three to six can explore mathematically relevant ideas such as length, direction, and shape. We will discuss the initial insights coming from the teaching experiment on how children approached the length of straight paths.