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The Effect of a Classroom-Based Intensive Robotics and Programming Workshop on Sequencing Ability in Early Childhood

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Abstract

This paper examines the impact of programming robots on sequencing ability during a 1-week intensive robotics workshop at an early childhood STEM magnet school in the Harlem area of New York City. Children participated in computer programming activities using a developmentally appropriate tangible programming language CHERP, specifically designed to program a robot’s behaviors. The study assessed 27 participants’ sequencing skills before and after the programming and robotics curricular intervention using a picture-story sequencing task and compared those skills to a control group. Pre-test and post-test scores were compared using a paired sample t test. The group of children who participated in the 1-week robotics and programming workshop experienced significant increases in post-test compared to pre-test sequencing scores.

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Notes

  1. Based on prior studies, we predicted the direction of the results and, therefore, used a one-tailed significance value.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF Grant DRL-0735657). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors would like to thank the DevTech Research Group, participating school, teachers, and children, and members of Tufts Spring 2012 CD143 course.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Elizabeth R. Kazakoff, Amanda Sullivan & Marina U. Bers

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  1. Elizabeth R. Kazakoff
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  2. Amanda Sullivan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elizabeth R. Kazakoff.

Appendix A: Sample Sequencing Cards

Appendix A: Sample Sequencing Cards

See Figs. 3 and 4.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Example of Mechanical 1-type sequencing story cards. This figure illustrates one of the examples of the story sequencing card sets used in this study

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Fig. 4
figure 4

Example of Intentional-type sequencing story cards. This figure illustrates one of the examples of a story sequencing card sets used in this study

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Kazakoff, E.R., Sullivan, A. & Bers, M.U. The Effect of a Classroom-Based Intensive Robotics and Programming Workshop on Sequencing Ability in Early Childhood. Early Childhood Educ J 41, 245–255 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-012-0554-5

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