Board games for the study of flow charts

Abstract

The article presents the description of method of the study of flow charts using board games.The playing field in such a game is a flow chart. During the game, students roll the dice and move the chip around the playing field, depending on the number that has fallen. But at the same time, they must comply with the rules for the execution of the algorithmic structures included in the flow chart.The purpose of the proposed teaching method is to intensify the learning of educational material. This is especially important for informatics with its extremely fast rates of development.For the game, the class is divided into teams of 2–4 people. All teams play at the same time. During the game, each participant repeatedly goes through all the studied algorithmic constructions. Thus, one hundred percent coverage of students and repeated repetition of the material is achieved.Due to this, it becomes possible to advance far enough in the study of algorithmic constructions. In addition to traditional forks and two types of loops (with a precondition and with a given number of repetitions), input commands, subprograms and parameters are studied.The methodic were prepared as part of the Perm version of the propaedeutic course of informatics (team of authors: M. A. Plaksin, N. G. Ivanova, O. L. Rusakova; the working title of the course is "TRIZformatika"). But the technique can be applied in any other course. The article provides a description and playing fields of four board games for mastering the mechanism of flow charts, and also gives a number of methodological comments.