Kids Block Coding Game: A game to introduce programming to kids
Resumo
Teaching programming is a common choice to introduce computational thinking concepts. When learning programming, students face several challenges, problem solving and debugging among them. These activities are central to the concept of computational thinking [Flórez, Casallas, Hernández, Reyes, Restrepo and Danies 2017]. Previous research shows that teaching logic and programming to undergraduates is a hard task [Bromwich, Masoodian and Rogers 2012] [Liu, Cheng and Huang 2011]. This finding lead us to believe that the earlier a person is accustomed with those abstract concepts, the easier it will be for her to learn and use that knowledge when necessary. According to Piaget, kids of age approximately seven to eleven are on the concrete operational stage [Piaget and Cook 1952], in which they already can construct abstract ideas and logical structures on their mind. Children are spending more time than ever1 using mobile devices. At the same time, it is becoming common practice to teach children a very basic form of 1 The Common Sense Census: Media use by kids age zero to eigth 2017 https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-kids-age-zero -to-eight-2017
