Teaching K-12 students STEM-C related topics through playing and conducting research

Living in the world that is rapidly changing and is strongly interconnected with digital technologies puts a lot of pressure on K-12 students´ teachers. Although, today´s K-12 students are surrounded by technology and computers from the day they are born, they also must learn the basic principles of computer science in order to be adequately equip for their future jobs. However, Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (STEM-C) fields are too wide and too complex for only K-12 schools to participate in the teaching process. In this paper we thus present how high education institutions can cooperate with elementary and secondary schools in STEM-C education process of K-12 students. We will share two good practices for allowing K-12 students to learn STEM-C related topics that have been implemented in Puerto Rico and Croatia. The objective of both projects is to establish a pipeline for K-12 students to go to colleges, and from colleges to graduate schools. The paper will present the impact of the program on the pre-college and university community of Puerto Rico, as well as the results of outreach activities conducted in Croatia.