Ubbu: the complete coding curriculum that develops computational thinking from age 6

When is the best time for a child to learn computational thinking? The scientific evidence is consistent: the earlier the better. Computational thinking skills — breaking down problems, recognising patterns, designing algorithms and debugging errors — develop most naturally between ages 6 and 15, when the brain is at its peak plasticity. Ubbu is the platform designed specifically for that window: a complete curriculum in Spanish that turns creative coding into the most powerful tool for developing logic, reasoning and digital literacy in the early school years.

Ubbu is not simply a coding-games app. It is a structured curriculum of 35 lessons per year for students in grades 1 to 8 (ages 6 to 15), validated by universities in Portugal and the United Kingdom, aligned with international frameworks such as CSTA and the K-12 CS Framework, and designed so that any teacher — with no prior programming experience — can teach computational thinking with confidence. In Chile, Districalc is the official distributor and implementation partner, with teacher training included in every project.

What is computational thinking and why does it matter from childhood?

Computational thinking (CT) is not about learning to program computers. It is a way of reasoning and solving problems that can be applied in any context — from organising a backpack to planning a project. Jeannette Wing, the Carnegie Mellon University researcher who popularised the concept, describes it as the thought processes involved in formulating problems and their solutions so that the solutions are represented in a form that can be carried out by an information-processing agent.^[1]

In practical terms, computational thinking in primary education means developing five core skills:

• Decomposition: breaking a complex problem into smaller, manageable parts.
• Pattern recognition: identifying similarities and trends within problems to reuse solutions.
• Abstraction: focusing on essential information and ignoring irrelevant details to simplify the problem.
• Algorithm design: creating an ordered sequence of steps (with conditionals, loops and functions) that solves the problem.
• Debugging: identifying errors in a logical sequence, diagnosing the cause and correcting them systematically.

Studies linked to the Ubbu curriculum show that students who develop these skills from an early age show significant improvements not only in STEM subjects but in their general analytical ability.

Ubbu: a complete curriculum in Spanish for grades 1 to 8

Ubbu is a creative coding platform designed for children aged 6 to 15 to develop computational thinking through games, projects and interactive challenges. Its educational offering stands out for being a complete curriculum — not a collection of one-off activities — with a carefully designed pedagogical progression for each level.

The curriculum includes 35 lessons per year, with complete lesson plans, defined learning objectives, creative projects and offline complementary activities using recyclable materials. Students create games, animations and interactive stories while learning algorithms, sequences, conditionals, loops and abstraction.

• Runs in the browser with no installation, on any device with a minimum of 1 GB RAM. No specialised infrastructure required.
• Available in Spanish, English and Portuguese, culturally adapted for Latin America.
• Offline activities available for low-connectivity contexts, using recyclable materials to reinforce digital concepts in the physical world.
• Teacher dashboard with individual and class-level tracking, 4 assessment checkpoints per year and automatic reports identifying where each student needs support.
• AI and Cybersecurity content included in upper levels: digital ethics, privacy and critical thinking about artificial intelligence.

The following official Ubbu video shows the platform in action: the gameplay experience, the creative projects and the type of computational thinking students develop lesson by lesson.

Success case: 301 public schools in Salvador de Bahía, Brazil

The question that many principals and school administrators ask before adopting a new platform is a fair one: does it work under real conditions, with mixed infrastructure, untrained teachers and a diverse student population? The city of Salvador de Bahía, Brazil, answered that question at scale.

Salvador is the capital of the state of Bahía, one of the largest cities in Brazil, with a historically under-resourced municipal school system, high socioeconomic diversity and more than 90% of teachers with no prior training in educational technology. A pilot began in 22 schools in 2019. In July 2022 the contract for expansion was signed. By June 2023 — just 12 months later — Ubbu was operating in 301 public municipal schools, reaching 78,000 students in grades 2 to 5, with 1,250 teachers and administrators trained in the structured 40-hour model.

Measurable results: evidence, not promises

The data from Salvador is compelling: students recorded a +17% improvement in Mathematics performance and a +5% increase in logical reasoning, confirming that coding as a cognitive tool transfers benefits to other areas of knowledge.

The platform delivers tracking and real-time transparency at every level of the system: each lesson automatically generates an individual performance report, the education authority can monitor progress across all schools in real time, and a municipal dashboard consolidates logins, completed lessons and alerts.

The 4-phase implementation model

The success in Salvador was not accidental. Ubbu applies a 4-phase implementation model replicable in any municipality or institution:

1. School Mobilisation Presenting the initiative to school leadership and coordination. Aligning with the Education Authority. Mapping available infrastructure.
2. Preparation Organising labs and equipment. Identifying the participating teaching team. Selecting grades and student groups.
3. Training and Launch Teacher and administrator training (40-hour structured model). Creating student accounts. Designing the activity calendar. First supervised pilot lesson.
4. Continuous Follow-up Field monitors assigned to schools. Automatic platform reports. Reinforcement webinars for teachers who need extra support. Real-time dashboard for the institution.

Alignment with the Chilean curriculum: Ubbu meets the frameworks MINEDUC requires

One of the factors that sets Ubbu apart from other coding platforms is its explicit alignment with the curricular and teaching frameworks in force in Chile. Its pedagogical structure directly addresses the axes that the Ministry of Education has defined for the Technology subject and for teacher development.

Alignment with the Digital Teaching Guidance Framework (MOCDD)

The MOCDD, published in June 2025 by MINEDUC, CPEIP, the Innovation Centre and UNESCO, organises teacher digital competencies into three dimensions. Ubbu directly addresses two of the most critical for primary education:

Districalc in Chile: distribution, implementation and teacher training

Districalc is the official distributor of Ubbu in Chile. With more than 40 years of experience distributing educational technologies in Latin America and a presence in more than 20 countries, Districalc does not just supply licences: it is the implementation partner that ensures every school adopting Ubbu has the support it needs.

Districalc's offering for Chile includes:

• Platform licences with a complete curriculum in Spanish for grades 1 to 8.
• Structured teacher training: in-person or online workshops so teachers learn to use Ubbu confidently, understand the computational thinking framework and know how to integrate lessons into their annual planning.
• Implementation support: help organising the lab, creating student accounts, designing the activity calendar and running the first supervised lessons.
• Ongoing technical support and access to reinforcement webinars for teachers throughout the school year.
• Monitoring dashboard for school leaders and curriculum coordinators, with real-time visibility of platform use in each class.

The teacher training Districalc delivers prepares teachers in three complementary dimensions: technical (how to use the platform), pedagogical (how to integrate computational thinking into planning) and conceptual (what computational thinking is and how it connects to the MINEDUC curriculum and the MOCDD).

Why now is the moment for Chile

The convergence of three factors makes 2026 a particularly opportune moment for Chilean schools to adopt a structured computational thinking curriculum:

• Regulatory framework: the MOCDD published by MINEDUC in June 2025 sets concrete expectations for teacher digital competencies. Schools that implement Ubbu with Districalc can demonstrate direct compliance with Dimensions 2 and 3.
• Labour demand: a study by the Institute for the Future (IFTF) for Dell Technologies found that 85% of 2030 jobs do not yet exist, and that computational thinking skills will be fundamental across virtually all professions.^[2]
• Pedagogical window: computational thinking skills develop most efficiently in childhood. Every year without access to a structured curriculum is an opportunity that is difficult to recover at secondary level.