This paper deals with the problem of overcoming difficulties and raising the motivation of novice engineering students studying programming. We consider this

The importance of computational thinking (CT) development has increased during the last decade. There is a need to understand what to teach from computational thinking perspectives, as well as what types of activities and learning content topics to use in the classroom. Current students' generation is looking for engaging, motivating learning activities with immediate results and feedback. The paper presents the design process of the strategy for CT abilities development. The proposed strategy has been implemented in practice to identify its suitability for successful CT development within Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) education. The strategy is accompanied by teaching materials for computational making activities with Arduino. The proposed strategy contributes to Engineering education as an essential part of STEAM and usually not included in the basic and secondary school curriculum as a separate subject. Pre‐ and postsurvey were conducted with basic school students  to identify the effect of the strategy implementation on the development of CT abilities. The findings of this study showed a statistically significant increase in CT literacy in 14 abilities from seven dimensions: computing artifact, decomposition, abstraction, algorithm, communication and collaboration, computing and society, and evaluation. The implications of this study include the practical usage of the strategy in plan class activities for STEAM subjects in basic school to develop particular CT abilities.

State of emergency affects many areas of our life, including education. Due to school closure during COVID-19 pandemic as a case of a long-term emergency, education has been moved into a remote mode. In order to determine the factors driving the acceptance of distance learning technologies and ensuring sustainable education, a model based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology has been proposed and empirically validated with data collected from 550 in-service primary school teachers in Lithuania. Structural equation modelling technique with multi-group analysis was utilized to analyse the data. The results show that performance expectancy, social influence, technology anxiety, effort expectancy, work engagement, and trust are factors that significantly affect teachers' behavioural intention to use distance learning technologies. The relationships in the model are moderated by pandemic anxiety and age of teachers. The results of this study provide important implications for education institutions, policy makers and designers: the predictors of intention to use distance learning technologies observed during the emergency period may serve as factors that should be strengthened in teachers' professional development, and the applicability of the findings is expanded beyond the pandemic isolation period.

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