Children’s Debugging Processes and Strategies with a Simulated Robot: A Case Study

Abstract

A new simulated robot environment that focuses on the debugging process is used in this study. The environment provides debugging features such as fast execution of commands, the ability to delete single commands and trace. Two 7-year-old children used the environment, and their activities were recorded. Children had to move a simulated robot through a maze using move and direction Logo-like commands. The children used the debugging features of the environment efficiently and solved the problems assigned to them. They followed the debugging strategies such as identification of the bug, pinpointing the problematic code segment and correcting the program. The instructor was able to help them through the process when it was needed.