At the professional conference GeoAI – Geoinformation and Artificial Intelligence, held on July 5, 2025, and organized by the Croatian Cartographic Society and the Faculty of Geodesy, University of Zagreb, participants had the opportunity to hear the presentation “GeoAI in Primary Education” by Assoc. Prof. Ana Kuveždić Divjak, PhD.
The presentation offered an empirical reflection on workshops designed and implemented within the Erasmus+ project DIRECTORS, involving more than 200 lower primary school pupils in Croatia and the Netherlands. This time, special attention was given to the workshop “Geospatial Data (and Maps) in Our Hands”, in which pupils first vectorized objects in their school surroundings onto transparent sheets and overlaid the layers to create a physical map. These same data were then used in a digital, GIS-based detective game. By correctly applying spatial data operations (e.g., filtering, creating buffer zones, navigating by coordinates), pupils solved tasks that required algorithmic reasoning—thus providing an introduction to the principles of artificial intelligence.
The goal of the presentation was to demonstrate how spatial data can serve as a didactic bridge, guiding pupils from basic digital skills to an initial AI mindset—fostering critical thinking, collaboration, and the development of practical skills for the responsible use of GeoAI. Artificial intelligence was presented in two ways: as content (pupils explored algorithmic principles and discussed data), and as a tool (within a web GIS environment, they ran algorithms themselves and immediately observed the consequences of their choices, gaining experiential understanding of the human–algorithm relationship).
