Teaching computer science to children is a major priority in most countries in the world. Nevertheless, Computer Science curricula do not seem to address the children's world. Children rather need specific languages, models, and presentation methods. In the book here presented (read some page here - in italian - or read the ITiCSE 2006 conference paper - in english -) we propose a novel approach of considering a Computer Science Education curriculum based on children's creativity and imagination. The scope is the computer organization (aka Level 1 in the ACM K-12 Final Report). Materials have been designed for children, teachers and parents and take a gender-neutral approach.

For similar projects, have a look to the DMOZ Open Directory Project and to its Computer topic for K-12.

Much evidence, as reported by The ACM K-12 Final Report, confirms that developing Computer Science curricula for children is a major priority in most Countries. In Italy, for example, the Minister of Education has recently reformed the primary School curricula (6 to 10 years old) and one of the main priorities affects Computer Science. Primary and secondary schools have a unique opportunity and responsibility to cover Computer Science topics but, unfortunately, CS curricula for children do not seem to take into account "their particular world" often working through an "abstract" or what is actually a reduction of classical Computer Science curricula for adults.

The ACM K-12 Final Report represents a model for computer science education, but not a deliverable curriculum. Additional steps are needed to formulate contents, curriculum, textbooks and laboratory materials. It is a compulsory step, when developing a CS curriculum, to consider "CS Fluency", i.e. building solid bases for CS knowledge and not limiting the scope to "CS Literacy", i.e. specific-but-limited applications. From another point of view, while computer utilization continues to expand in elementary schools, the training of primary school teachers does not seem to be appropriate for CS.

Teacher training in computing is certainly not a new topic: Poirot et al. discussed similar arguments for colleges and high schools a couple of decades ago. It is certainly true, at least in Italy, that most of the primary school CS teachers are already working in the field, trained in a discipline other than CS and by choice (oddly by chance) are at the moment involved in teaching CS to children. This situation is similar to the U.S.: for teacher preparation and certification, slightly more than half of the U.S. States require CS certification to teach CS courses.

In addition, in order to design and develop a CS curriculum, two other strong aspects are of particular importance. Firstly, for a child the "Foundations of Computer Science" is the first level (aka Level 1) that they begin with. It provides K-8 children with basic concepts by integrating technology principles and algorithmic thinking. As the second point, it is well know that Computer Science has very limited success in attracting female students. With reference to this point, the special issue of SIGCSE Bulletin dedicated to "Women in Computer Science" is a solid base to start from, but perhaps it is not enough because of the recruitment efforts that do not seem to focus on K-8 children, but rather on children aged from 10 to 12.

It may be too late for young girls to "appreciate" CS as fun taking into consideration career opportunities. Therefore, it is of particular importance to develop a project that is gender-neutral right from the beginning, so as to appeal to both genders giving them the opportunity "to feel at ease" with Computer Science and particularly with technology. Unfortunately, combining all the themes discussed so far (K-8, gender-neutral approaches, teacher training, CS fluency, computer organization) few works can be found in literature that are of much help.

In this paper we introduce the approach followed at the University of Verona to prepare future primary school teachers to teach Computer Science topics. The content of the course is concerned with the organization of the computer and how hardware components interact with each other. The goal of the course is to provide teachers with ideas, material and contents for K-8 children. One thing we feel is particularly important is that the material of the course has been designed to appeal to a child as well as to the parents.

The computer (PC) is a Realm. The Realm is ruled by His Majesty whose name is Si Piuh. The Mother and the Subjects help Si Piuh to govern the Realm. Imagination transports children helping them to understand and inspiring them. In fact, children need their own language based on imagination, self-identification, analogy, play, and many other features which characterize their bubbly world. The key to the success is creativity, that is one of the most important skills a child can learn.

For English speakers: if you're looking for materials and ideas concerning children and computer science, have a look to the following bibliography or contact me. By the way, if you are interested on a rough comprehension of the italian web pages here posted, you can take advantage of many on line translators such as Google translator or Babelfish. Last but not the least, you can refer to my english web page.

If you're an Editor: consider to be the first to translate in English the book "Nel Regno di Si Piuh", a novel that explains Computer Science to children (and to teachers and parents as well). Contact me.

Categories and Subject Descriptors: K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education; Keywords: PC, Hardware, Children, Analogy, Fantasy, Play, Pedagogy, Self-identification