Swiss Day for Computer Science Education and Constructionism 2025On June 25, the “Ausbildungs- und Beratungszentrum für Informatikunterricht” (ABZ) organized the Swiss Day for Computer Science Education (“Schweizer Tag für Informatikunterricht”, STIU)—for the 14th time by now. CS teachers of all grades and schools from inside and outside of Switzerland could choose from thirteen workshops with different topics to get new inspiration for their own classes. As every year, I could not be prouder of the amazing educators and scientists we could get to visit us, and share their ideas and experiences. For myself it was a goose-bumps-inducing experience to see the STIU banner flying at ETH's main building for the first time. 
The STIU featured contributions from April Wang, ETH professor for Educational Technologies, on AI Literacy; Tim Bell, who received the STEM Medal of the rector last year, on CS unplugged; EPFL professor Francesco Mondada on debugging assessment; and many more. For the fourth time now, the event was co-located with the finals of the Swiss “Informatikbiber” competition. This year, we had a record-breaking number of “Biber” participants (over 50'000), and it was a special honor to me to hand out the medals to all 71 finalists together with ETH rector Günther Dissertori. The best three of each of the five age categories recevied the large golden medal—accompanied by frenetic applause of parents and teachers.
photos by Markus Burren What made this year's edition of the STIU particularly special, and also—at least in part—motivated the theme “Konstruieren statt konsumieren” (Construction instead of consumption) was the co-location with the Constructionism conference, which we organized together with PH Zurich. Specifically, three of the workshop proposals for Constructionism 2025 were accepted as STIU workshops. Moreover, visitors of the STIU could visit the Wednesday sessions of Constructionism, which also contained topics outside of pure CS education and had a somewhat broader scope. In turn, Constructionism attendees could visit the STIU and in particular join the celebrations of the finalists of the Swiss “Informatikbiber.”
The first two days of Constructionism 2025 were held at ETH, while days 3 and 4 took place at the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PHZH). The conference was attended by roughly 120 participants, and featured paper presentations, interactive workshops, and posters from 22 countries—many of which were outside of Europe such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, Uruguay, and the US. What a fantastic experience to see such a crowd come together. 
Thanks to everyone involved, and in particular to Bernadette Spieler and Tobias Schifferle from PHZH for organizing the conference with me. Further Reading |
