Exploring Different Unplugged Game-like Activities for Teaching Computational Thinking

Abstract

For a number of years, various games have been used as an educational tool at different academic levels, especially in primary education. However, only recently games that teach coding and algorithmic thinking or even broader, computational thinking, emerged. Initiatives like Hour of Code and similar online activities or block-based programming games popularized the field, while at the same time, projects like CSUnplugged showed that the “idea of programming” can be learned even without using the computer. In this paper, we present our experience so far in creating and implementing different unplugged activities that teach students of different age levels, from early primary school to the university students, the simple programming concepts and algorithms. As a part of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (STEM-C) outreach program named SUZA - From school to science and the academic community at University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Croatia, we conducted a number of game-like activities based on graph paper programming, block-based programming and using the existing board games. Although this is a work in progress project, the participant reactions so far, collected through interviews and questionnaires, indicated that the conducted activities were well accepted by students and their teachers. We also received a number of useful feedback comments and proposals, such as to expand the activities to include the homework part, or to make them more physical and relocate them outdoors.