Honors College Thesis
 

Teaching fundamental computer science concepts utilizing manipulatives

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/honors_college_theses/0v8388485

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  • This thesis presents innovative pedagogical approaches to teach fundamental Computer Science (CS) concepts, such as abstraction, representation, algorithms, and computation utilizing manipulatives, which are physical objects that students interact with to teach or reinforce a concept. Teaching and learning with manipulatives has a long history in science and mathematics education, but the development of and research on manipulatives to teach CS concepts is less common. Through observational field notes from a 6th-grade classroom and an interview with the teacher, this thesis discusses the affordances and drawbacks of the different approaches and manipulatives. We found that utilizing manipulatives led to increased student engagement and participation with the material, along with making teaching the material more exciting and engaging for the teacher. In addition, we found that manipulatives provided a way for student misunderstandings and errors to be more apparent through tinkering with the physical objects, along with the teacher being able to connect and further enforce multiple CS concepts through activities. However, we also observed drawbacks when implementing different manipulatives, specifically the algorithmic scaffolding restricted the ability for an algorithm to be created and designed in unique a way by a student, which could lead to less algorithmic creativity and freedom.
  • Keywords: Computer Science, Manipulatives, Abstraction, Algorithms, Representation, Computation, Computer Science Education
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