DuinoBlocks4Kids: Using Free Technology and Low-Cost Materials for the Exercise of Computational Thinking in Primary School via Programming and Educational Robotics

Abstract

This paper presents a case study about the development of Computational Thinking in primary school children (3st to 4th grade) via the teaching of programming abilities with the use of educational robotics, free technology and recyclable, low cost materials. We aimed at raising some hypotheses on whether there is a straight relationship between some cognitive aspects of children aged 8-10 (such as the ability to put events and ideas in sequence, the ability to execute mental operations on the basis of concrete experience, among others) and the ability to execute activities that may be linked to the learning of computer programming. The observed results indicated (from the use of a didactic kit developed for the accomplishment of this study) the possibility to develop the following computational thinking skills: abstract thinking ability, understanding of flows of control, Debugging and systematic error detection, iterative thinking, use of conditional logic and problem decomposition. Regarding the investigations related to cognitive maturity, we found evidence of a correlation between the cognitive characteristics analyzed and the performance of certain tasks related to computer programming, such as the development of purely sequential programs and understanding of processing idea.