Marina Umaschi Bers facts for kids

Marina Umaschi Bers is a professor at Boston College. She teaches about education and computer science. Professor Bers leads the DevTech Research Group. She started this group in 2001 at Tufts University.

Her work focuses on creating new learning tools. These tools help children grow and learn in positive ways. She is well-known for her work in teaching computer science to young children. She helped create ScratchJr, a free coding language. Over 35 million children use ScratchJr. She also invented the KIBO robot kit. This robot helps kids learn coding without screens or keyboards.

Education and Career

Marina Umaschi Bers began her studies in Argentina. She attended Buenos Aires University. There, she earned her first degree in Social Communications in 1993.

In 1994, she moved to the United States. She earned a master's degree from Boston University. She also received another master's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2001, she completed her Ph.D. at the MIT Media Laboratory. Her mentor was Seymour Papert, a famous educator.

After her Ph.D., Bers created the DevTech Research Group. This group focuses on how technology helps children develop. It started at Tufts University in 2001. She became the head of the Child Development department at Tufts in 2018.

In 2022, Professor Bers joined Boston College. She became the August Long Professor of Education. She also works with the Computer Science Department. She is part of the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.

Bers also helped start KinderLab Robotics in 2013. She has worked with WGBH-TV and PBS. These projects created fun content for children's TV shows.

Research and Projects

Professor Bers's research explores how technology can help children learn. Her early work looked at how children tell stories. She also studied how robots could be used in early education. She explored how kids learn values in online spaces.

In 2012, she created the TangibleK robotics program. This program teaches young children about technology. Bers also helped develop the ScratchJr programming language. She worked with Mitch Resnick, Paula Bonta, and Brian Silverman. ScratchJr is designed for children aged 5 to 7. It is a simpler version of Scratch. Scratch is used to teach coding to kids aged 8 to 16.

Bers also trains teachers to use technology in their classrooms. She creates lessons that teach programming and computational thinking. Her KIBO robot kit is a special tool. Young children can program KIBO using wooden blocks. This helps them learn computer programming in a hands-on way.

Published Books

• Bers, M. U. (2012). Designing Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development: From Playpen to Playground. Oxford.
• Bers, M. U. & Resnick, M. (2015). The Official ScratchJr Book. No Starch Press.
• Bers, M. U. & Sullivan, A. (2018) The Official ScratchJr Coding Cards. No Starch Press.
• Bers, M. U. (2018). Coding as a Playground: Programming and Coding in the Early Childhood Classroom. Routledge.

Awards and Recognitions

Marina Umaschi Bers has received many important awards. In 2005, she earned the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This is a top honor from the U.S. government for young researchers.

She also received a Young Investigator's Career Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The American Educational Research Association (AERA) gave her the Jan Hawkins Award. This award recognizes early career contributions to learning technologies.

In 2015, she was named one of the "Women to Watch in Science and Technology." This award came from the Boston Business Journal. In 2016, she received an award from Tufts University. It recognized her great contributions to graduate student studies.

She was elected a fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2022. In 2023, she became a member of the National Academy of Education. In 2024, she was honored as Dama de la Imperial Orden de Carlos V. This award recognizes people who have helped Spain through their work.