How early robotics can boost computational thinking, challenge gender stereotypes, and open doors for girls in STEM.
- In just 36 hours of robotics, second graders in Paraguay improved their computational thinking.
- Girls gained skills and interest in STE M.
- The program also boosted children’s attitudes toward technology and teachers’ use of robotics, showing it can work even in low-resource schools.
A 16-year-old girl from Texas, Tejasvi Manoj, was named TIME’s 2025 Kid of the Year, for creating Shield Seniors, an AI-powered platform that protects older adults from online fraud. Her achievement was possible because she had early exposure to coding and computational thinking, skills that gave her the tools to design a solution with real community impact.
Tejasvi’s story is a perfect example of how computational thinking and digital skills are as essential today as reading, writing, and math. On this International Day of the Girl Child, we celebrate the power of girls to lead change and highlight why the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) invests in programs that build these skills early in Latin America and the Caribbean—preparing future innovators, closing gender gaps in STEM, and ensuring students are ready for the jobs of tomorrow.
In Paraguay, for example, the Irûmi program showed that with only 36 hours of robotics-based instruction, students significantly improved their computational thinking. Giving children these foundations is critical to prepare the region’s next generation of innovators, capable of creating solutions as impactful as Tejasvi’s.
Tejasvi presenting Shield Seniors at the Texas High School Ideas Challenge, Texas A&M. Photo: TIME
Understanding Computational Thinking
Computational thinking, or CT, is basically the set of core ideas behind computer science and informatics, but it’s about much more than coding. Think of it as a problem-solving superpower. CT helps kids break down complex problems, communicate better, and even navigate everyday tasks. CT skills include abstraction, algorithmic thinking, automation, decomposition, debugging and generalization skills. That’s why more and more governments around the world are making it part of school curricula, recognizing it as one of the must-have skills for thriving in the 21st century.
Additionally, CT is becoming a big deal in early childhood education, and for good reason. The evidence shows that CT boosts creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration, all while helping children make sense of the technology they interact with every day. Introducing these activities early on is especially powerful because it taps into a key stage of development when children start moving from concrete to more abstract thinking. Research shows that these early education experiences can have a lasting impact on children’s future learning, health, and even social outcomes. Despite this consensus on the importance of CT, a key question remains: can systematic interventions effectively develop CT skills in young children?
Bringing Computational Thinking to young students in Paraguay
To better understand how to teach computational thinking, we implemented and evaluated Irûmi, an educational program for second graders in Paraguay. Irûmi, which means “companion” in Guaraní, was created by Multidisciplinary Organization to Support Teachers and Students (OMAPA), the Ministry of Education and Sciences, and the IDB. With support from SK Telecom from Korea, Irûmi provided teachers and students with a study plan, a robot-based tech kit, and training support, and gave teachers and students a full toolkit for learning: a study plan, a robot-based tech kit, and teacher support through training and tutoring. Over the course of 11 weeks, the program was rolled out in 104 schools. To measure its impact, we conducted a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) involving 207 schools, more than 2,000 students, and 160 teachers, one of the largest studies of its kind in the region.
Five Key Takeaways to develop C
- Start Early: Skills Gaps Can Close in Preschool. The study demonstrated that even in a relatively short time, students can improve their computational thinking skills. After just 36 hours of learning, participants improved their skills by +0.09 standard deviations. This shows that introducing these concepts at a young age can have a meaningful impact on foundational skills.
- Challenge Stereotypes to Boost Girls’ Interest. The program had a particularly strong effect on girls. Their preference for STEM-related toys jumped by +0.15 standard deviations, and their openness to seeing STEM toys as something for both girls and boys increased by +0.20 standard deviations. This suggests that engaging with robotics can help break down gendered ideas about who can pursue programming.
- Positive Attitudes Toward Technology Matter. Exposure to robots significantly improved children’s views on technology by +0.23 standard deviations. This is a crucial finding, as a positive attitude toward technology could have implications for future participation in STEM fields.
- Teachers Drive Innovation. The success of the program wasn’t just about the robots; it was about the educators. Teachers using the Irûmi program developed more positive attitudes toward technology in education, increased their use of robots by 82 percentage points, and even began adopting other technologies not included in the curriculum. This highlights the importance of empowering teachers to lead and innovate when integrating technology into the classroom.
- Robotics Can Be Scaled in Low-Resource Settings. The Irûmi program showed that educational robotics can be successfully implemented in public classrooms in low-resource settings. By using low-cost kits and providing short training sessions for teachers, the program demonstrates a model for making STEM education accessible to more children, regardless of their economic background.
The Irûmi program offers a compelling case for the power of educational robotics to foster essential computational thinking skills in young children. By proposing a low-cost approach and addressing pre-existing biases and empowering both students and teachers, these programs can play a vital role in creating a more equitable future for girls in STEM.
To dive deeper into the methodology and findings, we invite you to read the full paper: The Impact of an Educational Robot-Based Intervention on Second-Graders Computational Thinking Skills: The Experimental Evaluation of the Irûmi Program in Paraguay.