Yalla KIBO: A Research-Practice Partnership for Binational, Youth-Led Kindergarten Robotics in Jerusalem
Tess Gavrielle Levinson, Loai Qubti, Zvi Bekerman, Marina Umaschi Bers · Proceedings. · 2024
Educational programs working for a shared society are one peacemaking approach for intractable conflicts, such as that between Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, including Palestinian citizens and residents of Israel.This paper discusses a pilot program where Israeli and Palestinian teenagers, alumni of a binational computer science (CS) and entrepreneurship program, designed, taught, and researched a robotics program at an integrated Arab-Jewish kindergarten, using an iterative design process to construct the program based on their experiences.We found features in both the learning environment and student outcomes relating to the shared society model.Our findings suggest that by incorporating features of education for a shared society into the design of the educational environment, a CS educational leadership program can become not only a coding playground but a coding bridge, leading to outcomes of a shared society as well.