Measuring the Impact on Student's Computational Thinking Skills Through STEM and Educational Robotics Project Implementation

2020 ◽  
pp. 238-288
Author(s):  
Avraam Chatzopoulos ◽  
Michail Kalogiannakis ◽  
Michail Papoutsidakis ◽  
Sarantos Psycharis ◽  
Dimitrios Papachristos
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
Project Implementation ◽  
School Students ◽  
Engineering Mathematics ◽  
High Participation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Educational Robots

In this chapter, the authors present their research on how P12 students apply computational thinking (CT) skills when they are assigned simple science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) problems, which they are called upon to solve with the help of educational robotics (ER) activities. The reason for this research was the high participation and increased interest shown in an ER event, where distributed questionnaires recorded students' views on ER, STEM, and CT. Their answers were the spark to conduct a pilot study on primary school students in the form of an experiential seminar to investigate the possibility of developing their CT skills by applying ER activities when they are asked to solve authentic STEM problems. The results showed that students may develop CT skills when involved in ER activities and that educational robots enhance students' engagement with programming and create a more favorable environment for developing students' CT skills.

scholarly journals The Effect of Robotics-Based Storytelling Activities on Primary School Students’ Computational Thinking

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Karin Tengler ◽  
Oliver Kastner-Hauler ◽  
Barbara Sabitzer ◽  
Zsolt Lavicza
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Fourth Graders ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
School Students ◽  
Technological Environment ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Post Test

Robotics is needed as education keeps up with challenges students are facing in a technological environment. A long-term research project focuses on developing a feasible robotics-based learning environment that enables primary school teachers to introduce computer science education. This paper shows educational robotics combining storytelling to promote computational thinking through the method of Tell, Draw, and Code. The study was conducted via pre–post test, using the Beginners Computational Thinking test (BCTt), with third and fourth graders (N = 40) to determine if the integration of robotics-based storytelling activities enhances computational thinking skills. Results show that an increase in computational thinking is evident after the intervention is implemented. The approach of combining stories, texts, and literature with educational robotics seems to be a promising concept to equip students with the required skills.

scholarly journals Fostering Computational Thinking Skills: A Didactic Proposal for Elementary School Grades

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 518
Author(s):  
Ricardo Silva ◽  
Benjamim Fonseca ◽  
Cecília Costa ◽  
Fernando Martins
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
School Students ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
School Teaching ◽  
Learning Scenarios ◽  
Collaborative Learning Environment

There is a growing presence of technology in the daily lives of elementary school students, with a recent exponential rise due to the constraints of remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to understand how the education system can contribute to helping students develop the required skills for technological careers, without neglecting its obligation to create conditions that allow them to acquire transversal skills and to enable them to exercise full citizenship. The integration of Educational Robotics and block programming activities in collaborative learning environments promotes the development of computational thinking and other ICT skills, as well as critical thinking, social skills, and problem solving. This paper presents a theoretical proposal of a didactic sequence for the introduction to educational robotics and programming with Scratch Jr. It is composed of three learning scenarios, designed for elementary school teaching. Its main goal is to create conditions that favour the development of computational thinking in a collaborative learning environment. With increasing complexity and degree of difficulty, all the tasks root from a common problem: How can we create an algorithm that programs the robot/sprite to reach a predetermined position?

Efficiently Prompting Students When Developing Computational Thinking Skills

2022 ◽  
pp. 91-115
Author(s):  
Soumela K. Atmatzidou ◽  
Chrysanthi N. Βekiari ◽  
Stavros N. Demetriadis
Keyword(s):  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Study Groups ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Student Response ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
Teacher Guidance ◽  
Response Modality ◽  
The Impact

This study investigates the impact of student response modality on the development of computational thinking skills in educational robotics activities. Students of an elementary school were divided into three study groups ('Control', 'Selecting', and 'Writing') that implemented activities based on the same teacher guidance while prompted to provide responses of different modalities. The purpose was to engage students in the development of computational thinking skills, focusing on the basic skills of abstraction, generalization, algorithm, modularity, and debugging. These skills were evaluated at different phases during the activity, using different modality (selection, written, and oral) assessment tools. The results suggest that (1) prompting and eliciting thoughts in the form of written or selected answers proves to be a beneficial strategy, and (2) the two groups, ‘Writing' and ‘Selecting', reach the same level of CT skills, which is significantly higher than the level of the control group.

Single or Combined? A Study on Programming to Promote Junior High School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills

2021 ◽  
pp. 073563312110351
Author(s):  
Lihui Sun ◽  
Linlin Hu ◽  
Danhua Zhou
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Junior High ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Junior High School Students ◽  
Control Group ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Impact

In this work, we studied the influence of different programming approaches on the development of students’ computational thinking (CT) skills, the programming experience and gender differences in CT development were also discussed. A total of 158 junior high school students and one teacher participated in the study over 5 months. The sample students were divided into four experimental groups in four single or combined programming approaches (i.e., plugged-in, unplugged, unplugged first, and plugged-in first) and one control group without programming. Data sources included the results of four CT tests, as well as interviews with the teacher and surveys with 24 representative participants. The results showed that the four programming approaches can effectively improve students’ CT skills and can be retained after two months. Among them, the form of implementing unplugged activities before plugged-in can most effectively improve CT skills, and can better weaken the impact of previous programming experience. Finally, the qualitative analysis results provided insights into the process of programming and CT education. These findings will provide implications for the introduction of CT in junior high school, and help expand students’ participation in computing.

scholarly journals A Scoping Review on Implementation of I-Think Maps and Its Effects on Higher Order Thinking Skills in Malaysian Schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Lina Mursyidah Hamzah ◽  
Wan Mazwati Wan Yusoff
Keyword(s):  
Scoping Review ◽  
Higher Order Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Measurement Scale ◽  
School Students ◽  
Higher Order Thinking Skills ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The Impact

Abstract: Malaysian schools have been implementing i-Think program as a means to develop higher order thinking skills among primary and secondary school students since 2013. Thus, there is a need to assess the implementation of the i-Think program since it was made compulsory almost seven years ago. This paper reports a scoping review of research activities conducted on the implementation of the i-Think program in Malaysian schools to synthesize studies on the implementation of the i-Think program in the classrooms; teachers' and students’ acceptance of the program; examine its impact on HOTS and students’ achievement; and to identify and disseminate the gaps in the works of literature. Forty articles were reviewed and the results indicated that the data on how i-Think programs were implemented in classrooms were so small that no definite conclusions could be made. Results on both students' and teachers’ levels of knowledge on i-Think maps were mixed. Majority of studies showed that i-Think maps significantly enhanced students’ achievement. However, no study measured the impact of i-Think on HOTS despite researchers' claim that i-Think maps had stimulated students’ HOTS. Thus, future studies should focus on showing correlation between i-Think and HOTS by using a validated measurement scale to assess students’ HOTS, development of valid and reliable measurement scale to gather a large pool of data to illustrate more comprehensively the status of i-Think implementation in schools throughout Malaysia, support systems provided to teachers at school and district level, and identifying barriers that hinders teachers from implementing i-Think program. Keywords: HOTS, i-Think Maps, Malaysian schools, Scoping review.

Educational Robotics for Creating Effective Computer Science Learning for All

2021 ◽  
pp. 44-69
Author(s):  
Amy Eguchi
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Underrepresented Minorities ◽  
Educational Robotics ◽  
Learning Tool ◽  
Real Picture ◽  
K 12

President Obama's initiative, “computer science for all,” has been a rallying slogan for promoting computer science in K-12 education. Although the participation of people of color in computer science (CS) has increased in the past several years, it is still drastically low and does not reflect the real picture of our society. This chapter explores how educational robotics as a learning tool can inspire underrepresented minorities including females and students of color to become interested in CS. Supported by Papert's constructionism theory, educational robotics effectively facilitates students' learning of various concepts in CS and STEM. Educational robotics is a learning tool which inspires students' interest in learning. It provides a learning environment that promotes students' learning of various CS concepts and computational thinking skills. Although robots naturally spark students' interests, to make it most effective, teachers are required effortfully to create learning opportunities that are authentic and meaningful for individual students.

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