Promoting Computational Thinking in K-12 students by applying unplugged methods and robotics

Abstract

Nowadays students live in the digital age and they do not only should learn to speak, write or develop specific skills. Students needs to be successful in their context and a possible way to achieve this is by developing the computational thinking. In the last few years there are several initiatives to promote computational thinking and to define approaches and methods to support it. One of this is the unplugged methods, in which students develop computational thinking skills without using the technology. This paper presents an experiment to promote computational thinking by using unplugged methods and employing robots as teachers as an engagement factor for the students. During the experiment, they have been distributed in two groups. One has carried out unplugged activities to develop computational thinking while the other did not. From the experiment, it is possible to see that results are better for those students that have completed unplugged activities and there are differences depending on age.