SUGAR LABS FOR STUDENTS


Welcome to the Sugar students site. Here you will find all you need to get started with Sugar.

Student learning goals and Sugar


“Learning with Sugar is something a child does, not something that is done to or for a child.” – Walter Bender

Sugar is a collection of hundreds of tools designed to introduce children to programming, computational thinking, and problem-solving. Sugar has no set curriculum; its best practice is to immerse children in problem-solving and debugging. Children are given agency to work on problems they are passionate about in a context where there is an expectation that there were no predetermined solutions or prescribed paths to a solution. As Solomon observed,  “debugging is the greatest learning opportunity of the 21st century.” While engaged in problem-solving, children are developing and refining the algorithms employed by the agents in the various levels of their cognitive towers.

While computation and coding are at the heart of Sugar, Sugar is not programming curriculum: computational thinking goes well beyond the realm of learning to code. While the specific algorithms they discuss—searching, sorting, optimal stopping, predicting, etc.—are useful in and of themselves, the real power of computational thinking lies it its systematic approach to debugging and problem-solving. Learning that problems can be addressed systemically is the underlying “powerful idea” of programming. The process of writing and then repairing or “debugging” a program provides a basis for active learning through trial and error, regardless of what the problem that is actually being solved.

Link to some learning materials


  • Ceibal materials
  • Paraguay materials

Link to some of the "Learning with Pages" in the wiki


These books are recommended as a rich source of ideas on how to use Sugar in and out of the classroom:

  • Sdenka book
  • Bender, W., Kane, C., Cornish, J., Donahue, N., (2012). ​ Learning to Change the World: The Social Impact of One Laptop per Child. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Christian, B. and Griffiths, T. (2016). ​ Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions. ​ Henry Holt and Co.
  • Hetland, L., Winner, E., Veenema S., and Sheridan, K.M. (2007). ​ Studio Thinking: The Real benefits of Visual Arts Education. Teachers College Press
  • Papert, S. & Solomon, C. (1971). Twenty things to do with a computer. ​ Artificial Intelligence Memo ​ No. 248 and ​ Logo Memo ​ No. 3.
  • Pink, D. (2009). ​ Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Press.
  • Stefanakis, E. (2002). Multiple Intelligences and Portfolios: A Window into the learner's Mind. Greenwood Press.
  • Trinidad, G. (2013). ​ Física con XO. https://sites.google.com/site/solymar1fisica/fisica-con-xo-investigacion-/fisica-con-xo-el-libro