1. First Graders Coordination of Counting and Movements on a Grid When Programming with Tangible Blocks
- Author
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Abigail Erskine, Laura Bofferding, Sezai Kocabos, and Haoran Tang
- Abstract
As elementary students begin to program using tangible blocks, they must coordinate their use of counting with the movements, directions, and numbers they use to move a character. In our study, we analyzed 13 first graders' first attempts at coordinating these elements when playing a programming game on the iPad that used tangible programming blocks. We further analyzed how their programs changed over the six sessions. Our results highlight the challenges students faced when counting on a grid, representing movements with numbers, and distinguishing between movement blocks. We also present factors that influenced their improvements. The results indicate that game hints supported some students' use of numbers, while the highlighted path helped some and challenged others. Partner talk and having the opportunity to make iterative changes in their code also supported some groups. [For the complete proceedings, see ED658295.]
- Published
- 2023