Pirate plunder: game-based computational thinking using scratch blocks

Policy makers worldwide argue that children should be taught how technology works, and that the ‘computational thinking’ skills developed through programming are useful in a wider context. This is causing an increased focus on computer science in primary and secondary education. Block-based programming tools, like Scratch, have become ubiquitous in primary education (5 to 11-years-old) throughout the UK. However, Scratch users often struggle to detect and correct ‘code smells’ (bad programming practices) such as duplicated blocks and large scripts, which can lead to programs that are difficult to understand. These ‘smells’ are caused by a lack of abstraction and decomposition in programs; skills that play a key role in computational thinking. In Scratch, repeats (loops), custom blocks (procedures) and clones (instances) can be used to correct these smells. Yet, custom blocks and clones are rarely taught to children under 11-years-old. We describe the design of a novel educational block-based programming game, Pirate Plunder, which aims to teach these skills to children aged 9-11. Players use Scratch blocks to navigate around a grid, collect items and interact with obstacles. Blocks are explained in ‘tutorials’; the player then completes a series of ‘challenges’ before attempting the next tutorial. A set of Scratch blocks, including repeats, custom blocks and clones, are introduced in a linear difficulty progression. There are two versions of Pirate Plunder; one that uses a debugging-first approach, where the player is given a program that is incomplete or incorrect, and one where each level begins with an empty program. The game design has been developed through iterative playtesting. The observations made during this process have influenced key design decisions such as Scratch integration, difficulty progression and reward system. In future, we will evaluate Pirate Plunder against a traditional Scratch curriculum and compare the debugging-first and non-debugging versions in a series of studies

Mathematics at your fingertips: Testing a finger-training intervention to improve quantitative skills

Previous research indicates that the use of fingers as representations of ordinal and cardinal number is an important part of young children's mathematics learning. Further to this, some studies have shown that a finger training intervention can improve young children's quantitative skills. In this article, we argue that fingers represent a means for children to bridge between different external representations of number (including verbal, symbolic and non-symbolic representations). Therefore we predicted that an intervention that combined finger training with experience playing games involving multiple representations would lead to greater increases in quantitative skills than either aspect of the intervention alone. One hundred and thirty-seven children aged between six and seven years old took part in an intervention study over the course of four weeks. The study tested the impact of five different conditions on participants' quantitative skills, their finger gnosis, and their ability to compare magnitudes of two non-symbolic representations of number. Relative to a control group, those children receiving a finger training intervention saw gains in finger gnosis skills (the ability to differentiate fingers when touched, without visual cues). Those children who played number games saw an increase in their non-symbolic magnitude comparison skills. However, only those children who experienced both aspects of the intervention saw increases in quantitative skills, which were assessed using an instrument informed by Gelman and Gallistel's (1978) five principles of counting. The findings show that a finger training intervention, when combined with intensive exposure to multiple representations of number, can support young children's development of quantitative skills. This adds to evidence in the literature regarding the role of fingers in children's mathematics learning, and may have implications for pedagogical approaches

The development of numerical cognition in children and artificial systems: a review of the current knowledge and proposals for multi-disciplinary research

Numerical cognition is a distinctive component of human intelligence such that the observation of its practice provides a window into high-level brain function. The modelling of numerical abilities in artificial cognitive systems can help to confirm existing child development hypotheses and define new ones by means of computational simulations. Meanwhile, new research will help to discover innovative principles for the design of artificial agents with advanced reasoning capabilities and clarify the underlying algorithms (e.g. deep learning) that can be highly effective but difficult to understand for humans. This article promotes new investigation by providing a common resource for researchers with different backgrounds, including computer science, robotics, neuroscience, psychology, and education, who are interested in pursuing scientific collaboration on mutually stimulating research on this topic. The article emphasises the fundamental role of embodiment in the initial development of numerical cognition in children. This strong relationship with the body motivates the Cognitive Developmental Robotics (CDR) approach for new research that can (among others) help to standardise data collection and provide open databases for benchmarking computational models. Furthermore, we discuss the potential application of robots in classrooms and argue that the CDR approach can be extended to assist educators and favour mathematical education

An exploration of the role of visual programming tools in the development of young children’s computational thinking

Programming tools are being used in education to teach computer science to children as young as 5 years old. This research aims to explore young children’s approaches to programming in two tools with contrasting programming interfaces, ScratchJr and Lightbot, and considers the impact of programming approaches on developing computational thinking. A study was conducted using two versions of a Lightbot-style game, either using a ScratchJr-like or Lightbot style programming interface. A test of non-verbal reasoning was used to perform a matched assignment of 40, 6 and 7-year-olds to the two conditions. Each child then played their version of the game for 30 minutes. The results showed that both groups had similar overall performance, but as expected, the children using the ScratchJr-like interface performed more program manipulation or ‘tinkering’. The most interesting finding was that non-verbal reasoning was a predictor of program manipulation, but only for the ScratchJr-like condition. Children approached the ScratchJr-like program differently depending on prior ability. More research is required to establish how children use programming tools and how these approaches influence computational thinking

Ecological Analysis of the Fish Distribution in Green Creek, A Spring-Fed Stream in Northern Ohio

Author Institution: Department of Zoology, The Ohio State UniversityThe distribution of fishes in Green Creek, a spring-fed tributary of Sandusky Bay in northern Ohio, was studied from June 1976 through June 1977. A total of 31 species representing 22 genera and 10 families was taken at 8 stations along the length of the creek. Two cold water springs interrupt the longitudinal succession of fishes and cause the stream to be divided into 4 divisions, each with its own ecological characteristics and fauna: I. Upland warm water tributaries with Catostomous commersoni and cyprinids dominant. II. Cold water trout stream produced by stocking Salmo gairdneri near the spring; Coitus bairdi is an abundant native species in this division. III. Marl substrate of low gradient with Catostomous commersoni, cyprinids, darters, and Coitus bairdi. IV. Estuary of Lake Erie with typical lake fishes. The stations with the highest macroinvertebrate biomass also had the highest fish biomass. Various physical and chemical measurements were made, and it was determined that the marl deposits of the springs were not conducive to fish productivity. The distribution of fishes in Green Creek does not follow the classical pattern of longitudinal zonation but is determined by the unusual physical and chemical parameters induced by the springs

Finding ‘mathematics’: parents questioning school-centred approaches to involvement in children’s mathematics learning

This paper reports a study of parental involvement in children's mathematics learning, in the context of a series of workshops carried out in four primary schools in the UK. Previous research suggests that, while there are high correlations between parental involvement and positive pupil outcomes, it can be difficult to raise pupil attainment via parental involvement interventions. We suggest that part of the reason for this, at least in relation to mathematics, is that parents experience considerable difficulties in negotiating school-centred definitions of, and approaches to, mathematics. We employed a design and analytic approach informed by Derridean concepts including decentring and différance. We encouraged parents to work with their children to ‘find the maths’ in everyday life and activity. A significant component of the discussion in each school involved sustained, critical reflection about the meaning of 'mathematics' and about parents' interpretations of parental involvement in children's education. We made sense of parents' discussions during the workshop by offering an account whereby parents grappled with mathematics as a socially constructed domain, dominated by school-centred ideology. As parents became more confident in their own analysis of the mathematics in everyday family life, they developed new strategies for sharing this mathematical thinking and awareness with their children. Implications for school parental-engagement strategies are discussed

Designing an adaptive learner model for a mathematics game

The RAIDING Project (Researching Adaptivity for Individual Differences in Number Games) aims to develop a game for 7-8 year olds, to develop their times tables and number bond skills. One of the design principles of the project is to implement a level of adaptivity into the game, so that the difficulty of the mathematical content adapts to the player's current level of arithmetic fluency. A learner model has been developed to enable the game to use previous gameplay performance to calculate the player's current level of arithmetic fluency, and thereby provide new tasks at an appropriate level of difficulty. A second design principle is to decouple the mathematical difficulty from gameplay rewards, so that progress in the game is achieved through time and effort rather that solely as a result of mathematical achievement. We predict that these two design principles will produce games that are motivating and help players to experience flow. This paper describes and discusses our adaptive implementation, and our approach to decoupling of mathematical learning from rewards. We evaluate the success of the game to date and consider scope for potential development and improvement. We also show how the analytical data produced by the learner model has been used to identify unhelpful in-game behaviours and adapt the game design. A future goal of the project is to explore whether the adaptivity of the learner model can be expanded to include gameplay ability (including elements hand-eye coordination and response times) and allow for separate dynamic adjustment of (non-mathematical) difficulty. We are particularly interested in investigating the affordances of such a "two-axis" flow in the game

Designing an ELearning Portal for Developing Countries: An Action Design Approach

This paper presents the first phase of a study on using course design, including current eLearning and social trends, to overcome challenges in eLearning within developing countries, particularly for vocational/non-mainstream training. The paper outlines the research and development of an ICT artefact using the Action Design Research method. The artefact will later be deployed and evaluated. The paper discusses the previous research that has categorised challenges in eLearning in developing countries and explores how these can be overcome through course and element design. Course design includes training development, platform selection and platform hosting, particularly in the context of developing countries. Element design looks at the creation of content that should be available, practical and viable to both the user and developer through the exploitation of current eLearning and social trends. The paper concludes with the concept of the ICT artefact that has been designed for phase two of the study.Comment: Research-in-progress ISBN# 978-0-646-95337-3 Presented at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2015 (arXiv:1605.01032

Explaining individual differences in strategy variability amongst secondary school mathematics students

This thesis reports an investigation of individual differences in children's learning of a concept in mathematics, involving rates of change on linear graphs. Evidence in the literature suggests both that high levels of strategy variability are associated with conceptual change in mathematics and that there are individual differences in strategy variability. Therefore it is argued that differences in strategy variability can offer useful insight into children's learning of mathematics. A series of experiments are reported that each aimed to explore individual and group differences in strategy variability amongst secondary school mathematics students. Methods used for data collection progressed from whole-class testing of students, to individual testing, to individual interviews employing think-aloud protocols, as the need grew for increasingly detailed data on children's strategies for solving problems. Early studies showed a gender difference in strategy variability, so later studies were designed to elaborate on and clarify this relationship. In combination, the results of the studies reported here suggest that there are robust differences in strategy variability between boys and girls and that this effect interacts with the context in which the problems are solved. The use of think-aloud protocols produced a complete reversal of the gender effect on strategy variability. The implications of these findings are discussed, both in terms of learning theory and in terms of their potential impact on the mathematics classroom. The main contribution of this investigation to the literature is in helping to establish strategy variability as a key to understanding cognitive development and as an indicator of children's specific needs for intervention and support in the classroom