In the past year, the artificial intelligence field - represented by AIGC and large language models - has advanced exponentially. Programming, as the "master key" connecting the AI era with innovative talent, has gained paramount importance. The youth coding market has entered an active phase, making quality programming education for K-12 students and comprehensive improvement of scientific literacy a mission-critical proposition for the future.

Recently, the "Mars Research Class" with programming as the core has garnered significant public attention. It not only made a strong impression at the first Science Education Expo and the Shanghai Out-of-School Education Exhibition but also emerged as the first-prize winner at the inaugural Shanghai Out-of-School Science and Technology Education Course Design Competition.

According to reports, this is an innovative STEM program designed by Xueersi SuYang for children aged 7-10 with interests in technology, programming, astronomy, aeronautics and related fields.

Xueersi SuYang believes that programming education must primarily focus on the curriculum system, leveraging technology-enhanced methods to deliver science courses effectively. It aims to build robust platforms and tools, providing children with superior educational resources to spark curiosity, foster creativity, and cultivate personalized, innovative talents—increasingly positioning itself as a key contributor to advancing science education."

"High Tech Assists in Creating Interdisciplinary Integrated Courses" - the XYSSYL programming research and development team believes that the traditional method of information technology education can no longer meet the actual needs of young people in the new era. In contrast, the "programming+" interdisciplinary training mode is more in line with the development trend of future intelligent society.

Information literacy education focuses on acquiring, processing, and utilizing information but lacks the cultivation of actual application capabilities. Today, information technology is no longer just about information acquisition and processing but is more about innovative thinking, problem-solving ability, and integration with other disciplines. The "programming+" interdisciplinary training mode focuses on cultivating students' programming skills while combining knowledge from other disciplines, enabling them to better meet the diverse challenges of future intelligent society.

As a result, the "Mars research course" was born - in 2023, Xueersi SuYang and Tencent Education reached a cooperation to jointly release an inquiry-based course with a Martian science theme. The entire course is designed for interdisciplinary integration around the core concept of science, helping children experience the fun of programming and learn scientific knowledge in a gaming teaching scenario, igniting the dream of technology and further assisting in the cultivation of technology talent.

 Learn more about the Mars research course

The head of the Xueersi SuYang Mars research course stated, "The" programming+ "cross-disciplinary integrated education not only helps lower the academic barriers of programming education, but also organically applies knowledge concepts of various disciplines to the teaching process of programming education, better cultivating students' programming ability. On the other hand, cross-disciplinary integration teaching enables students to engage in project-based learning and problem-based learning in real situations."

In the future, Xueersi SuYang will continue to create "programming+" mode of cross-disciplinary integrated courses, deeply integrating science, humanities, arts, and other fields, making children fall in love with programming learning. At the same time, through the addition of 3D virtual simulation technology, AR, and other technical means to further increase students' associative creativity, innovation, flexibility of thought, and provide a higher level of course development standard for the programming education industry, promoting the broader future for youth programming education.

In line with national strategy, cultivating future-oriented innovative talents - In 2020, the Ministry of Education released the Strong Foundation Plan, which explicitly stated that from 2020 onwards, talent selection and training will mainly select and cultivate students who are dedicated to serving the country's major strategic needs and have outstanding comprehensive qualities or outstanding basic disciplines. It also emphasized that 40% of this is related to programming.

In 2022, the Ministry of Education released the "2022-2025 National Competition Activity List for Primary and Secondary School Students," establishing 44 competition activities including the National Youth Artificial Intelligence Innovation Challenge; 50% of the new events are science and technology innovation competitions.

In 2023, the Ministry of Education and eighteen other departments issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Work of Science Education in Primary and Secondary Schools in the New Era," pointing out the need to improve students' scientific literacy and cultivating a group of young people with the potential of scientists, willing to dedicate themselves to scientific research.

With the release of multiple national policies such as the national AI strategy, programming is gradually transitioning from an interest course to a basic subject and is gradually being incorporated into primary and secondary school basic courses. National-level competition activities increasingly focus on science and technology innovation competitions. As a beneficial supplement to school education, Xueersi SuYang programming business has also gradually established three major teaching systems of robot programming, artificial intelligence, and algorithm competition, meeting the needs of training future technology talents through differentiated courses.

Robot Programming: In the pre-school stage, large-size robot programming courses are offered, allowing children to complete mental challenges through building blocks, combining physical program-controlled robots, and exercising hand-eye coordination and spatial visualization. In the primary school stage, the spike robot programming course is available, using the latest spike basic science innovation suit from LEGO and combining intelligent hardware programming to help children freely realize their creativity.

Artificial Intelligence: The lower age group curriculum format in primary schools has been comprehensively upgraded, and the "Mars Research Class" has been launched. The curriculum for the older age group in elementary schools uses various technologies including the WonderLand teaching independently developed by Xueersi SuYang, Python online, Python-Wonder, etc. to create various gamified scenarios for the children to experience, connecting adventures in their own way. Meanwhile, integrating social watching and personalized dressing/face-changing functions, making the learning process more interesting. This gamified learning experience not only satisfies the curiosity of children but also truly achieves the goal of "stimulating interest and applying what has been learned."

Algorithm system: Through more scientific and detailed course divisions, matching the learning needs of children of different ages, setting stage-specific learning goals for them. By learning and participating in various information-related activities, children's logical thinking ability, algorithm design ability, and programming implementation ability are cultivated to become professional talents in the future.

From cultivating interest to training thinking and then to cultivating professional talents, the programming course design of Xueersi SuYang has been quietly changing with demand. Based on 20 years of educational accumulation and feelings, Xueersi SuYang looks forward to providing more scientific and higher-quality courses to Chinese young people, helping them ignite interest and apply what they learn in programming courses, face changes with ease, learn to think, and be more lively.

Source: Phoenix Network: https://ishare.ifeng.com/c/s/v006eUmHBPFR-_AnnuMbpYqqoIGQigzWdjfUY68JdvQ08KK0xwZ6Q9z7ZrD5vqqkWPGzIXdwZ7G4nOuh2ShgncEo1-_g____?spss=np&recallChannel=searchResult&channelId=&aman=20D885E6c8Iaae1260F5adSd34xc0dwae5Va1aU78c&gud=99h220u797