Class
Article
College
College of Science
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
With the rising perception of computer science as a universally useful skill in the twenty-first century, companies like Thinkfun have developed and promoted games purported to promote programming skills or the elusive concept of computational thinking in players. In this project, we tested and compared the occurrence of computer science concepts in three games in Thinkfun’s //CODE series. We filmed three pairs of sixth grade students playing each board game and, afterwards, interviewed the students on their experiences and perceptions surrounding the game. We then coded each video for instances of computational thinking in the players. In our presentation, we evaluate the computational thinking present in each type of gameplay and reflect on the limits of our coding scheme. In addition, we explore the students' perception of the experience and ask them how they view computer science.
Start Date
4-9-2020 1:00 PM
End Date
4-9-2020 2:00 PM
Computational Thinking Exhibited by Sixth Graders in Coding Board Games
With the rising perception of computer science as a universally useful skill in the twenty-first century, companies like Thinkfun have developed and promoted games purported to promote programming skills or the elusive concept of computational thinking in players. In this project, we tested and compared the occurrence of computer science concepts in three games in Thinkfun’s //CODE series. We filmed three pairs of sixth grade students playing each board game and, afterwards, interviewed the students on their experiences and perceptions surrounding the game. We then coded each video for instances of computational thinking in the players. In our presentation, we evaluate the computational thinking present in each type of gameplay and reflect on the limits of our coding scheme. In addition, we explore the students' perception of the experience and ask them how they view computer science.