Designing and Improving Activities of Initiation to Computational Thinking in the Mathematics Classroom

Abstract

This document shows an experience of innovation in education framed in the mathematics curriculum aiming to the develop computational thinking abilities. To do so, we undertake a teaching experiment in four sessions at fourth and fifth grades. We expose the students to various unplugged tasks with manipulative materials with the board game Turing Tumble. A sequence of tasks is set out, offering students activities to create, test and debug algorithms, and recognize patterns through different challenges given with this mechanical simulator. We describe the different tasks and analyze whether they are relevant based on the students’ answers, organized in pairs or groups of three. We detail the protocol we followed to debug the exercises given to the students. We pay attention to how the order and the type of challenges contribute differently to develop computational thinking skills, allowing algorithm creation, testing, debugging and efficient optimization. This process improves the planned activities for the following investigation cycle.
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