Shortly before eleven in the morning at the Bläsi school in Kleinbasel. The big break is over. The pupils in class 5c bustle around the room, laughing. Today, lessons are not taking place in the classroom, but in the school's computer room. Ursula Grunder is already waiting for them. She will be leading the next two lessons for the Primalogo teaching project, in which everything will revolve around computer codes - in short, programming for primary school pupils. As part of this 20-lesson project developed by ETH (see box), the pupils will be programming with the child-friendly programming language Logo.

"They learn basic commands that a virtual turtle uses to move across the screen and draw shapes," explains the Primalogo expert. "In this way, the pupils learn how the basics of programming work." As the last bell rings through the school corridors, silence slowly descends. The two class teachers, Carole Martin and Susan Briner-Borer, will stay in the background this morning and only intervene if it gets too loud or to help the pupils.

"Last time we learnt how to programme squares, today we're going to draw flowers with new commands," says Ursula Grunder, opening the Primalogo lesson and looking into expectant faces. The pupils have now moved their chairs into a semi-circle in front of the blackboard. "Who can help me programme a flower shape with the repeat command, who has an idea?" Rustling. No one answers. The experienced teacher tries a different approach: "How many degrees does the turtle make when it turns 90 degrees four times?" Now the hands shoot up. "360 degrees," shouts a girl. "Very good! " says Grunder. "If the turtle takes 360 steps and turns one degree, we get a circle. What command do we have to give the turtle to make it draw a circle?"

A few hands go up again. "repeat360 bracket fd 1 rt 1 bracket!" comes from the other corner. "Exactly! Super job!" Ursula Grunder turns to the blackboard and now writes the command in chalk in a completely analogue way. This continues until the pupils have put together the sequence of codes for the new task with the help of the Primalogo teacher. "You can also look up the commands in your exercise book. Shall we try this out?"

Switch on, start up. After just a few moments, the Primalogo programme appears on the large screens. The bustling energy from before slowly transforms into a whispering carpet of voices. Now concentration is required. If you get stuck, contact Ursula Grunder or assistant teacher Yasin Oytun, a computer science student at the University of Basel. The two support the pupils with tips and tricks, praise and motivation. But this is often not even necessary: "The students help each other out," says Yasin Oytun. "They're pretty good at it."

Like 10-year-old Arjun*, for example. His turtle has been whirling in perfect circles across the screen for several minutes while some in the middle row are still concentrating on typing the code from the blackboard into the command field of the Primalogo programme. "Wow," whispers his neighbour Alessio* as the small digital artwork on Arjun's screen turns out to be a colourful mandala. Arjun leans over to his neighbour: "Lueg, you have to leave a gap in your command, otherwise it won't check what it's supposed to do," and immediately follows up with a new trick that you obviously only understand if, like the pupils in 5c, you've already had a few lessons in programming: "If you now make 120 movements with a rotation of 1 degree each, it will draw a third of the circle." And: "If you add this command, it will draw a pointed leaf," he says with a grin. Indeed: the turtle has understood the command and begins to draw a flower with pointed leaves.

A few tables away, 11-year-old Nhài* is completely engrossed in her screen. She conscientiously copies the commands from the screen and compares them with the commands in the exercise book. It fits! Her turtle is ready to go. She tries the first command. But the console, the programme's output window, flashes up with an error message: "A programme must always start with 'to'!" Nhài* accepts the challenge and checks the commands again. Then a smile flits across her face. She has discovered the error. Next attempt, and her turtle also starts to move. She is delighted: "Now the turtle will turn a little to make a nice arc." And indeed, it runs a circle and then begins to make another circle, a few degrees off centre. Nhài* is beaming. Can she imagine doing something with programming later? She nods. "That's fun. Maybe I can programme an app one day." A statement that would probably not come so naturally to most adults over the age of 35, i.e. "digital dinosaurs" who spent their childhood and youth largely without the internet.

It's a completely different story at the neighbouring table. Sara* is sitting here. She is 11 years old. "I think programming is really cool," she says, happily sliding back and forth on her chair. "I also think it's great that we can try out so many different forms." Could she imagine programming professionally as an adult? She answers with a serious look: "I could very well imagine it, yes!".

What is noticeable is that many of the children are very enthusiastic. There is a lot of laughter. Of course, "playing" with the computer has its appeal. And yet: a few pupils in the class can't get to grips with programming. Ursula Grunder also realises this. "Of course, very few children of this age have a clear idea of where they want to go with their Primalogo lessons," she says. However, the decisive factor is that all pupils are given the same opportunity to get to grips with programming. After all, the aim of Primalogo is not to turn all children into computer scientists. Rather, it is important to enable them to work out solutions themselves. "In this way, the children learn to think independently and create something of their own instead of just operating smartphone apps with superficial user knowledge." This promotes creativity instead of "consumption".

What's more, digitalisation and artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the world of work and society in the very near future. Children should be prepared for this development today. Recent studies by Oxford University, for example, conclude that around half of employees in the USA work in jobs that are threatened by digitalisation. An almost identical trend is also emerging in Switzerland, as a study by the consulting and auditing firm Deloitte Switzerland shows. Experts and researchers agree: almost every job of the future will involve technology. And: interesting jobs of tomorrow will require a certain amount of programming knowledge. "In the future, we won't need people to carry out tasks, but rather independent people with a research mindset who will drive social development forward," says Juraj Hromkovic, ETH computer science professor and initiator of the Primalogo project. For him, one thing is clear: "Being able to programme will become a skill that is comparable to writing and reading."

The foundation for this should therefore be laid as early as possible at school. Programming lessons also provide a good basis for a school career: "In fact, programming lessons anticipate a few basic mathematical concepts that pupils only learn in 6th or 7th grade, such as calculating sums of angles for polygons," confirms class teacher Susan Borer-Briner. "By actively applying this in programming, they develop a concrete idea of angle calculations." The fact that some English is already being used is also very helpful for later English lessons, the teacher continues.

Even if not all children will show the same interest or talent for programming, the philosophy behind it is that children, as the adults of tomorrow, should at least understand the basics of how programmes work. This is where Primalogo comes into play and offers pupils a platform to try out their creativity. A glance at Sara's* screen also shows this. The two Primalogo lessons are drawing to a close and the pupil is currently saving her tasks, including those that have been interpreted artistically: In addition to mandalas and flowers, her turtle has also drawn Picasso-like shapes that cannot be found in the exercise book. "I changed the instructions a bit," she says with a grin. In Primalogo courses at other schools, motifs of lions or zebras have also been created in this way.

The integrative effect of programming lessons in the classroom is another plus point, especially in Kleinbasel, where many people with a migration background live: "The pupils have different levels of German, depending on the subject, not everyone gets on equally well," explains class teacher Susan Borer-Briner. Programming is different. They don't need a good command of German. Anyone who masters the commands is in. Programming gives refugee children in particular, who have to adapt to a completely new culture and learn a new language "on the side", a sense of achievement that motivates them. "Pupils who are rather shy blossom in programming lessons," says assistant teacher Yasin Oytun. One thing is clear: there is no language barrier when it comes to computer commands. Only logical thinking is required here, and everyone has the same starting conditions.

* The names of the children have been changed by the editors in consultation with the school.

"Primalogo" introduces pupils and teachers to the world of computer science. With the help of the child-friendly programming language Logo, the foundations for computer science education are laid. Primalogo was developed by the ETH at the Training and Advisory Centre (ABZ) for Computer Science. Teachers in the 5th and 6th primary classes learn how to incorporate Logo lessons into their classroom teaching and how to give their class their first experience of developing programmes. So far, more than 100 schools with over 3000 pupils in German-speaking Switzerland have taken part. The project is currently supported by the Hasler Foundation, which promotes the further development of information and communication technology. Funding for the ETH teaching project is only secured until autumn 2017.

Information on the programme:
www.primalogo.ch; courses in German-speaking Switzerland can be found at this link; registration page for courses in Basel, click here.

Logo is a programming language developed especially for children. With Logo, children can write their first programmes themselves in just 10 minutes. By entering commands, a turtle is controlled so that its track creates geometric drawings: Stairs, polygons, circles, flowers. In this way, the children learn to recognise and construct visual and linguistic patterns and to plan their actions with foresight.
The teaching materials and the Primalogo programme can be downloaded free of charge in various languages at this link.

In order to keep pace with the technological developments of the future, children must learn to programme, says ETH computer science professor Juraj Hromkovic - and calls for a separate school subject in computer science.