TY - GEN
T1 - CodeAttach: Engaging Young Children in Computational Thinking Through Physical Play Activities
AU - Yu, Junnan
AU - Zheng, Clement
AU - Tamashiro, Mariana Aki
AU - Gonzalez-Millan, Christopher
AU - Roque, Ricarose
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Association for Computing Machinery.
PY - 2020/2/6
Y1 - 2020/2/6
N2 - Many toys and kits have been developed to help cultivate computational thinking in young children in the past decade. However, a majority of these kits ask children to move a robot/character around a limited space, constraining what could otherwise be generative and creative learning experiences into pre-defined activities and challenges with uniform outcomes. How can we expand what children can program and how they can create code? In this work, we present CodeAttach, a learning kit designed to engage young children in computational thinking through physical play activities. CodeAttach consists of three parts: (1) an interactive hardware device, (2) a mobile application to program the device, and (3) supporting materials for different play activities. With CodeAttach, children can attach the device to the supporting materials or other everyday objects to create their own props for physical play. The device offers different inputs and outputs and supports children to change the rules of existing physical activities or create new activities by programming this device. We outline the principles guiding the design of CodeAttach, its initial development process, and insights from early playtest with young kids and expert researchers.
AB - Many toys and kits have been developed to help cultivate computational thinking in young children in the past decade. However, a majority of these kits ask children to move a robot/character around a limited space, constraining what could otherwise be generative and creative learning experiences into pre-defined activities and challenges with uniform outcomes. How can we expand what children can program and how they can create code? In this work, we present CodeAttach, a learning kit designed to engage young children in computational thinking through physical play activities. CodeAttach consists of three parts: (1) an interactive hardware device, (2) a mobile application to program the device, and (3) supporting materials for different play activities. With CodeAttach, children can attach the device to the supporting materials or other everyday objects to create their own props for physical play. The device offers different inputs and outputs and supports children to change the rules of existing physical activities or create new activities by programming this device. We outline the principles guiding the design of CodeAttach, its initial development process, and insights from early playtest with young kids and expert researchers.
KW - Coding kit
KW - Physical play
KW - Young children
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85082485738&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3374920.3374972
DO - 10.1145/3374920.3374972
M3 - Conference article published in proceeding or book
AN - SCOPUS:85082485738
T3 - TEI 2020 - Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction
SP - 453
EP - 459
BT - TEI 2020 - Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction
PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
T2 - 14th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, TEI 2020
Y2 - 9 February 2020 through 12 February 2020
ER -