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Callysto is an educational initiative based in Canada that focuses on the promotion of computational thinking, coding, and data literacy within the standard curriculum. Launched in 2018, this federally funded learning platform is accessible to students in grades 5 to 12 across Canada at no cost. Its primary objective is to equip Canadian students with essential digital skills. The program has gained substantial recognition for its distinctive approach to data science education, notably through the incorporation of data science hackathons, teacher training events and workshops, and Indigenous mathematics to supplement the Canadian K-12 curriculum.

History
IPython and Jupyter, launched in 2011 and 2014, respectively, have found widespread utility among researchers, data scientists, and educational institutions. In 2016, a collaborative effort between Cybera and PIMS, in partnership with Compute Canada on the Syzygy project, extended the accessibility of JupyterHub to post-secondary institutions. This development spurred requests for a similar educational environment for K-12 classrooms. By utilizing funds from the Canadian CanCode program, initiated in 2017, Callysto focused on making Jupyter notebook modules aimed at promoting coding and the development of digital skills among a younger audience. Through a variety of online resources, the project assists teachers in integrating computational thinking and programming concepts into the education of students from Grades 5 through 12. The Jupyter notebook modules are available through a Callysto Hub platform service, allowing users to access notebooks via modern web browsers.

Learning resources
Callysto has built a series of interactive learning resources spanning diverse subject areas, aligned with the existing Canadian curriculum for Grades 5-12. These modules train students to test and visualize data and experiment with different statistical models. Callysto's trainers collaborate with teachers, demonstrating how to utilize the Callysto platform and create customized modules for their classrooms. Teachers can also engage in self-paced online learning courses, available on the Callysto website.

Teacher training and hackathons
Over the years, the Callysto team has conducted numerous training workshops with teachers across Canada, in addition to organizing data science hackathons in various Canadian provinces, including Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia. The Callysto team offers data science hackathons with participating schools, allowing students to solve problems by hacking or analyzing open datasets. Hackathons are run in the classroom, online, or in-person, serving as experiential learning events, where prizes are awarded to the best submissions in different assessment areas. Additionally, the project provides teachers with resources and tools to create their own curriculum-based notebooks and host their own hackathons with their students in the classroom.

Indigenous content
The Callysto team has created several learning modules to promote cross-cultural understanding and celebrate Indigenous culture. These resources include modules to examine the mathematics of cultural traditions of the Coast Salish people, developed in collaboration with the Tla’amin Nation and the Math Catcher program from Simon Fraser University.

Computational thinking test
Callysto has developed a Computational Thinking Test validated by Professors Cathy Adams and Maria Cutumisu from the University of Alberta. This test is designed to monitor and evaluate shifts in computational thinking within Grades 5-12 student and teacher populations.

Awards
As of 2023, the project has trained over 5,000 teachers and 130,000 students in Canada. In 2023, Callysto was nominated as one of the finalists of the 34th Annual ASTech Awards, and its events have been featured across different media platforms.

Technology grants
Callysto extends its support to K-12 education through technology grants and awards. These grants allow individual schools and divisions to develop and deploy their own digital tools for computational thinking with the support of the Callysto project.