Teaching Elementary Students Programming in a Physical Computing Classroom

Jin, Karen H.; Haynie, Kathleen; Kearns, Gavin

doi:10.1145/2978192.2978238

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Physical computing is considered to be very beneficial for all age groups as it provides a high learning level, it promotes participation, interest and sharing of ideas, enforces constructive and creative learning and it cultivates creativity and imagination (Fokides & Papoutsi, 2020;Przybylla & Romeike, 2014). However, the choice of the goals to be achieved as well as the learning environment of Physical Computing must be carefully selected as it can be not only fun but also very demanding: it includes very demanding activities that increase the cognitive load and may bring about a very disagreeable learning experience (Jin, Haynie, & Kearns, 2016).…”

Section: Physical Computing and Computational Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study of the Impact of Arduino and Visual Programming In Self-Efficacy, Motivation, Computational Thinking and 5th Grade Students’ Perceptions on Electricity

Ntourou¹,

Kalogiannakis

Psycharis

2021

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed

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This article presents a quasi-experiment which, with the use of Arduino and Scratch for Arduino (S4A), attempts to study their effect on self-efficacy and motivation towards Science Education, Computational Thinking (CT) and the views of 5 th Grade students about concepts of electricity. It was conducted on the 5th Grade of a Primary School in Greece. The research team chose the quantitative method, which was conducted through the delivery of four questionnaires that were mainly consisted of close-ended questions. In order to achieve triangulation and a deeper understanding of the topic, it was considered important to include individual open interviews. The data processing failed to prove the effect on motivation, while in self-efficacy it was proved only partially. However, the effect was explicit in view of the conceptual understanding of electricity and CT. The specific project could spur the prosecution of an extended research, aiming at the probe on the one hand of how the existing outcome is confirmed and on the other hand how they are preserved through time, for the purpose of insinuating computational methods and tools into primary education.

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Section: Physical Computing and Computational Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study of the Impact of Arduino and Visual Programming In Self-Efficacy, Motivation, Computational Thinking and 5th Grade Students’ Perceptions on Electricity

Ntourou¹,

Kalogiannakis

Psycharis

2021

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed

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“…They trialled a sequence including introduction, program demonstration, learner guided activities with support from the teacher and post discussion. The authors concluded that cognitive load was managed by their approach and content knowledge increased; however there was no control group used [14]. Whether cognitive load demands are the same in microcontroller projects as in robotics activities is an area for further investigation.…”

Section: Pedagogy and Physical Computingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, McDonald & Howell reported development in emergent literacy and numeracy, digital access and basic engineering concepts although they recommended further investigation of the balance between teacher control and pupil autonomy. Jin et al [14] trialled a teaching sequence to reduce the cognitive load that could be induced by physical computing. They trialled a sequence including introduction, program demonstration, learner guided activities with support from the teacher and post discussion.…”

Section: Pedagogy and Physical Computingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching with physical computing devices

Sentance

Waite

Yeomans

et al. 2017

Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education

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There is a growing interest in small programmable devices that can be used in schools and in extra-curricular contexts to teach computer science. The BBC micro:bit is one such device; through a collaborative venture, micro:bits were recently distributed to every 11-12 year old in the UK. Although the technology itself is often of primary interest, a focus on how teachers can use the technology in the classroom to help students learn is increasingly being drawn out in the literature: this paper adds to that body of work. Having interviewed 15 teachers and 54 students about their use and experience of the micro:bit, we present an analysis of the varied ways in which teachers are using the BBC micro:bit, and note a range of instructional styles. We classify di erent approaches to teaching with physical computing, identifying teachers who we describe as either inspirers, providers or consumers. Finally we make recommendations for more teacher professional learning opportunities around physical computing. The results of this qualitative study will be useful to teachers and teacher educators wishing to work more e ectively with physical computing in the classroom. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics → K-12 education; • Hardware → Sensor devices and platforms;

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“…Although MMC was effective at fostering improvement in CT skills, our curriculum has room to improve when using physical computing. We may be able to further improve self-efficacy by implementing our MMC curriculum using the Active-Media Design method used by Jin et al 9 Finally, we have shown that CT framed inside PS is largely decoupled from CT. This may be the initial indicators that support our goal of showing that CT is not PS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…. learners how to program 9 . The authors discuss that, while physical computing can be engaging and fun, students become distracted by the physical devices making it "challenging to teach rigorous computing concepts in such a busy environment.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

STEM Outreach: Assessing Computational Thinking and Problem Solving

Weese¹,

Feldhausen²

2017 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Abstract:The ever-growing popularity of computer science has fostered the need for computational thinking (CT), especially in K-12 education. Pedagogy that infuses CT, as well as reliable methods for assessing CT, remain open problems. In this paper, we describe a 5th-9th grade STEM outreach program. Classes on micro controllers and computer programming are presented. Data collected through a newly designed self-efficacy instrument is used to determine effectiveness of these curricula at improving confidence in CT and problem solving skills. IntroductionThis paper describes a STEM outreach program where the Manhattan-Ogden Unified School District 383 has partnered with Kansas State University. This program lasts four weeks and is designed to expose 5th-9th grade students to STEM careers and subjects through hands-on activities. The program covers a large range of areas, including robotics, computer programming, agriculture, food science, unmanned aerial vehicles, clean energy, and construction science. Professional educators are paired with small groups (2-4) of pre-service teachers to run each class (maximum size of 18). This allows pre-service teachers to get practical, hands-on experience, as well as to learn new STEM activities to include in their own future classrooms. This also gives an excellent teacher to student ratio, providing a oneon-one learning experience for program participants. We focus, however, on measuring the impact of two classes on the program participants. Each class employed similar pedagogy and the Scratch (2009) 17 programming language. One relied heavily on computer science theory and space exploration as a theme, and the other used micro controllers as the foundation for activities. The goals of this research are as follows: 1. Develop effective curricula for improving student self-efficacy in CT, 2. Develop a reliable and effective way of measuring student self-efficacy in CT, and 3. Enforce the notion that CT is not problem solving (PS), but a component of cognition.

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Teaching Elementary Students Programming in a Physical Computing Classroom

Cited by 20 publications

References 11 publications

A Study of the Impact of Arduino and Visual Programming In Self-Efficacy, Motivation, Computational Thinking and 5th Grade Students’ Perceptions on Electricity

A Study of the Impact of Arduino and Visual Programming In Self-Efficacy, Motivation, Computational Thinking and 5th Grade Students’ Perceptions on Electricity

Teaching with physical computing devices

STEM Outreach: Assessing Computational Thinking and Problem Solving

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