Impact of Programming Exposure on the Development of Computational Thinking Capabilities: An Empirical Study

Today’s digital society has turned the development of students’ computational thinking capabilities into a critical factor for their future success. As higher education institutions, we need to take responsibility for this development in every degree course we offer, and provide students with the kind of subjects and activities that best contribute to this aim. In this paper, we study the impact of following an introductory programming course on the development of the computational thinking capabilities of university students. In order to achieve this aim, a concurrent cohort observational study was carried out in which we measured both the subjective and objective computational thinking capabilities of 104 participants (50 first year students enrolled on a Bachelor’s degree course in Psychology at the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM), and 54 first year students enrolled on a Bachelor’s degree course in Health Information Systems at the University of Alicante (UA)). The statistical procedures applied to test our hypotheses were a two-way mixed ANOVA, a paired-sample T-test and an independent-sample T-test. The data shows that the group at UA had an initial higher subjective perception of their computational capabilities than the group at UCAM. This perception was supported by their objective scores, which were also significantly higher. However, the subjective assessment of computational capability of the UA group diminished after exposure to the programming course, contrasting with the fact that their objective computational capabilities improved significantly. In the UCAM group, both subjective and objective capabilities remained constant over time. Based on these results, we can conclude that computational thinking capabilities are not developed naturally, but need to be trained. Providing such training to all our students, and not only to those enrolled on undergraduate degrees in engineering, is of paramount importance to allow them to face the challenges of their future professions. This paper empirically demonstrates the extent to which exposing subjects to a programming course may contribute to this aim.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness (Access@City) under Contract TIN2016-78103-C2-2-R, in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities under Contract RTI2018-098156-B-C54, in part by the Co-Financed by FEDER funds (MINECO/ FEDER/UE), and in part by the EduTech Project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union under Grant 609785-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP

Representar: estrategia didáctica

“Es una realidad de nuestras instituciones el haber puesto el acento en los contenidos, más que en el modo de conseguirlos, en los resultados más que en los procesos; la investigación metacognitiva propone un cambio fundamental en esta tendencia, atendiendo también los procesos de aprendizaje y no solo sus resultados. "La metacognición y las herramientas didácticas", Chrobak, Ricardo. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ingeniería, Departamento de Física. Buenos Aires 1400.8300 Neuquén. Desde la experiencia docente y de participación en proyectos de investigación en relación al tema propuesto, "Los medios de expresión, analógicos y digitales, y su relación con las representaciones del diseño conceptual y la creatividad", desarrollado en el Instituto de Investigación de Gráfica Aplicada al Diseño–IIGrADi–FAUD-UNC, se asume como desafío de conocimiento la estrecha vinculación que existe entre representar y proyectar en las carreras de diseño. La representación se dicta como asignatura, y es la vez es la estrategia de enseñanza en las materias de la carrera. Los alumnos realizan transferencia de contenidos de representación a las demás asignaturas en procesos de metacognicion que merecen un estudio mas profundo. Este trabajo se propone estudiar cómo llega al alumno a vincular contenidos de materia representación con las las asignaturas de nivel, con el fin de organizar recursos y estrategias de aprendizaje que intervienen en los procesos de transferencia, considerados claves para la formación profesional del un diseñador. Observamos como los procesos meta cognitivos permiten ir más allá de la propia disciplina, ofrecen herramientas para llegar al conocimiento del proceso personal de aprendizaje, factor clave de construcción del conocimiento y formación profesional. Promueven la toma de decisiones, activan el SABER ACTUAR, posibilitan construir conocimiento porque permiten reconocer una estrategia personal y no disciplinar. Empezaremos reconociendo como estrategia de metacognición a la reflexión de conocimiento, a partir de encuestas al alumno que le permitan diferenciar las tres dimensiones del conocimiento, saber, saber hacer y saber actuar, valorando la reflexión sobre su propio proceso cognitivo. La estimulación con preguntas conduce a un proceso natural de metacognición que será tabulado para reconocer, comparar y promover procesos de metacognition desde la asignatura. Llevar a un plano consciente el propio proceso de aprendizaje es el primer paso para elaborar estrategias de transferencia.The representation is assumed as a subject, and is the time is the most important teaching strategy in the subjects of the race. Students transfer content of representation to other subjects in metacognition processes that deserve a deeper study. This work aims to study how the student reaches to link contents of subject matter with the level subjects, in order to organize resources and learning strategies that intervene in the transfer processes, considered key for the professional training of a designer.Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanism

Desempeños de exploración, estrategias de enseñanza.

Ponencia presentada en el V Congreso de Expresión Grafica. EGraFIA 2014. XI congreso Nacional de Profesores de Expresión Gráfica en Ingeniería, Arquitectura y Áreas Afines. Rosario, Santa Fé. 2014La alfabetización visual entendida como aquella capacidad que nos permite producir y leer imágenes, debe ocupar una posición principal entre aquellas habilidades que ayudan a desarrollarnos en la educación artística y proyectual. Expandir nuestras capacidades de ver es expandir nuestras capacidades de comprender un mensaje visual y lo que es aún más importante elaborarlo. (D. A. Dondis, 2000, G.G. La sintaxis de la imagen) Debemos entender y aceptar que dibujar, al igual que el escribir, son sistemas de representación gráficos; definidos como habilidades humanas universales. Pudiendo las mismas variar cualitativamente en las personas y por consiguiente modificar el resultado de la expresión gráfica como accionar proyectual. Experimentar, es una herramienta fundamental en el desarrollo de las capacidades para dibujar, pero; fundamentalmente se debe entrenar y adquirir la habilidad de “observar”. Observar es más que ver. Observar es el resultado de la existencia de un interés o motivación en lo que percibimos. Basándonos en esta afirmación proponemos la experiencia de observar mediante el registro consciente, donde aprender a observar nos posibilita un accionar proyectual más complejo y eficiente. Desde las cátedras de Sistemas de Representación I y Sistemas de Representación II de la carrera de Diseño Industrial, de Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, y en el marco de desarrollo de un trabajo de investigación, se proponen una serie de desempeña de comprensión, desempeña exploratorios, posibilitando a los estudiantes la ocasión de explorar cada tópico generativo; y al docente la oportunidad de conocer la comprensión que tienen los estudiantes sobre lo aprehendido y de esa manera establecer vínculos entre los intereses personales del estudiante y los contenidos curriculares. Es nuestra intención, mostrar los resultados de esta experiencia y poder así retroalimentar nuestro trabajo.http://www.fceia.unr.edu.ar/dibujo/links.htmFil: Barra, Silvina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño; ArgentinaFil: Nicasio, Cristina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño; ArgentinaFil: Mazzieri, Conrado. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño; ArgentinaEducación General (incluye capacitación, pedagogía y didáctica

Pensamiento computacional y género: un estudio observacional

El propósito de este estudio ha sido medir el efecto del género en la percepción y desarrollo del pensamiento computacional en alumnos de primer curso de grados universitarios. Para ello se ha realizado un estudio observacional en el que, para una muestra de 79 estudiantes de primer curso del grado de Psicología de la UCAM, se midió tanto su nivel de pensamiento computacional objetivo como su auto-percepción acerca de sus habilidades computacionales. Durante la fase de análisis de datos se aplicaron sendos t-tests para muestras independientes. Los resultados muestran que existen diferencias estadísticamente significativas en cuanto a la percepción de auto-eficacia computacional entre hombres y mujeres, diferencias que no se corresponden con los niveles objetivos, que no presentan diferencias estadísticamente significativas. Se hace por tanto necesario concienciar a las estudiantes de lo erróneo de esta auto-percepción con el fin de motivarlas a la asunción de retos computacionales que entrenen esta habilidad durante su formación.The purpose of the study was to study the effect of gender on the perception and development of the computational thinking capabilities of first year university students. An observational study was conducted in which 79 students of Psychology at the UCAM were measured with respect to both their computational thinking objective capabilities and their subjective perception regarding those same capabilities. During the data analysis, two t-tests for independent samples were applied. The results show that there are statistically significant differences between males and females regarding their auto-perception of computational efficacy. Such differences are not supported by statistically significant differences in objective performance. These results suggest the necessity to increase awareness among female students of this fact in order to increase their engagement in computational challenges that further train their ability during their education

Evaluation of the Properties of Iron Oxide-Filled Castor Oil Polyurethane

The aim of this study was to obtain and evaluate the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of iron oxide-filled castor oil polyurethane (PU/Fe2O3). The iron oxide used in this study was a residue derived from the steel pickling process of a Brazilian steel rolling industry. Polymeric composites with different iron oxide volume fractions (2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0 and 12.5%) were prepared through the casting process followed by compression molding at room temperature. The composites were analyzed by FTIR, XRD and densities, tensile strength, Young’s modulus, electrical and thermal conductivities measurements. By increasing the iron oxide content, the apparent density, tensile strength, Young’s modulus and electrical conductivity values of the composites were also increased. The iron oxide additions did not change significantly the value of thermal conductivity (from 0.191 W.mK–1 for PU up to 0.340 W.mK–1 for PU enriched with 12.5% v/v of iron oxide). Thus, even at the higher iron oxide concentration, the compounds as well as the pure polyurethane can be classified as thermal insulators

Dispositivos contrahegemónicos en voces insubimitivas en el Sur de Bahia

Nesse artigo sobre a escrita de mulheres negras da microrregião Ilhéus-Itabuna, apresentamos a literatura como lugar de insurgência e de emergência das ancestralidades afrodiaspóricas. Por tais vias, escritoras negras ressignificam o conceito de literatura na contemporaneidade, mas ainda sofrem os impactos do racismo estrutural constituinte do Cânone Literário. Diante de protocolos perenes do patriarcado branco, Karen Oliveira, Eloah Monteiro, Kali Oliveira e Tereza Sá apresentam seus versos e suas narrativas, entram na cena da disputa pela criação de processos estéticos e propõem formas inventivas de construção de conhecimento e validação epistemológica de suas obras. Palavras- chave: Cânone Literário; Literatura Afro-feminina; EpistemologiaEn este artículo sobre la escritura de mujeres negras en la microrregión Ilhéus-Itabuna, presentamos la literatura como un lugar de insurgencia y emergencia de abolengo afrodiaspórica. De esta manera, las escritoras negras han dado un nuevo significado al concepto de literatura en la contemporaneidad, pero aún sufren los impactos del racismo estructural que constituye el Canon Literario. Ante los perennes protocolos del patriarcado blanco, Karen Oliveira, Eloah Monteiro, Kali Oliveira y Tereza Sá presentan sus versos y narrativas, entran en el escenario de la disputa por la creación de procesos estéticos y proponen formas inventivas de construcción del conocimiento y validación epistemológica de sus obras. Palabras clave: Canon literario; Literatura afro-feminina; EpistemologíaIn this article about the writing of black women from the Ilhéus-Itabuna micro-region, we present literature as a place of insurgency and the emergence of Afrodiasporic ancestry. Through these ways, black women writers resignify the concept of literature in contemporary times, but still suffer the impacts of the structural racism that constitutes the Literary Canon. Facing perennial protocols of white patriarchy, Karen Oliveira, Eloah Monteiro, Kali Oliveira, and Tereza Sá present their verses and their narratives, enter in the scene of the dispute for the creation of aesthetic processes and propose inventive forms of knowledge construction and epistemological validation of their works. Keywords: Literary Canon; Afro-feminine Literature; Epistemolog

ADAtools: Automatic Detection and Classification of Active Deformation Areas from PSI Displacement Maps

This work describes the set of tools developed, tested, and put into production in the context of the H2020 project Multi-scale Observation and Monitoring of Railway Infrastructure Threats (MOMIT). This project, which ended in 2019, aimed to show how the use of various remote sensing techniques could help to improve the monitoring of railway infrastructures, such as tracks or bridges, and thus, consequently, improve the detection of ground instabilities and facilitate their management. Several lines of work were opened by MOMIT, but the authors of this work concentrated their efforts in the design of tools to help the detection and identification of ground movements using synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) data. The main output of this activity was a set of tools able to detect the areas labelled active deformation areas (ADA), with the highest deformation rates and to connect them to a geological or anthropogenic process. ADAtools is the name given to the aforementioned set of tools. The description of these tools includes the definition of their targets, inputs, and outputs, as well as details on how the correctness of the applications was checked and on the benchmarks showing their performance. The ADAtools include the following applications: ADAfinder, los2hv, ADAclassifier, and THEXfinder. The toolset is targeted at the analysis and interpretation of InSAR results. Ancillary information supports the semi-automatic interpretation and classification process. Two real use-cases illustrating this statement are included at the end of this paper to show the kind of results that may be obtained with the ADAtools.This work has received funding from the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, with grant agreement No 777630, project MOMIT, “Multi-scale Observation and Monitoring of railway Infrastructure Threats”. It has been also partially funded by Interreg-Sudoe program of the EU, through the project RISKCOAST (Ref: SOE3/P4/E0868)

Perianal Crohn's disease and hidradenitis suppurativa: a possible common immunological scenario

Crohn's disease (CD) and Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) are both chronic inflammatory diseases. The pathogenesis of these diseases is multifactorial, due to the interaction of genetic and environmental factors leading to a deregulated local immune response where T lymphocytes play a major role. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has clarified whether the pathogenetic mechanism of perianal CD and HS is the same. We therefore analyzed the cellular expression pattern and the cytokine repertoire in three patients suffering from both perianal CD and HS