The PP&S100 Project: Process Control as an Information System Instance

The Project PP&S100, Problem Posing & Solving, is part of a set of initiatives promoted by the General Directorate of the Italian Ministry of Education, Research and University, for supporting the many innovations that have recently affected curricula at the upper secondary level. Main goals of the project include strengthening computer science culture and enhancing its role as a scientific discipline; founding education processes on logics, mathematics and computer science weaved together to pursue an interdisciplinary scenario, building a culture of "problem posing and solving" by investing across a broad disciplinary group of subjects, ensuring growth of computer science based training of trainers and practicing activities within specific social networks and virtual learning environment to share learning materials, teaching supplies, mentoring and self-evaluation. This work presents a hierarchical conceptual model for “Computational Thinking” assumed by PP&S100, formalized according to the outcomes shown by information systems courses held at the Politecnico di Torino and validated using Process Control as an information system instance.