Computational Thinking

Computational thinking is a set of skills that all students should have. It is something that is expected from them but not necessarily something that is taught in school. There are many different ways to include computational thinking in the classroom. After researching computational thinking there I was able to develop an experience that can be used with any age in order to understand as well as develop skills in computational thinking. Below is the slides as well as everything that is needed in order to recreate this experience.

Computational Thinking – Talking like a Computer or Human

Presentation Resources

Activity 1

Click here for google form for the activity

Click here if you would like to follow along with the results

Activity 2

Partner 1

  1. Click here for virtual manipulatives
  2. Once on the website, click manipulatives from the menu on the left side
  3. When drop down appears scroll down to tangrams
  4. You are now ready to begin. You must complete the shape your partner is describing without looking at the picture.

Person 2

  1. Click here for examples
  2. Pick a puzzle you would be able to successfully explain to partner
  3. You must describe how to make this shape without looking at what your partner is doing

Resources

Cookhamriseprimary.org,. (2015). Barefoot Sample Resources | Cookham Rise Primary School. Retrieved 16 July 2015, from http://www.cookhamriseprimary.org/barefoot-sample-resources/

Punya.educ.msu.edu,. (2015). Retrieved 16 July 2015, from http://punya.educ.msu.edu/publications/journal_articles/mishra-koehler-tcr2006.pdf

Runningonempty.acm.org,. (2015). Retrieved 14 July 2015, from http://runningonempty.acm.org/fullreport2.pdf

Static.zerorobotics.mit.edu,. (2015). Retrieved 14 July 2015, from http://static.zerorobotics.mit.edu/docs/team-activities/ProgrammingPeanutButterAndJelly.pdf

Static.zerorobotics.mit.edu,. (2015). Retrieved 14 July 2015, from http://static.zerorobotics.mit.edu/docs/team-activities/WriteItThenDoIt.pdf

Whittington, K. (2004). Infusing active learning into introductory programming courses. Journal Of Computing Sciences In Colleges, 19(5), 249-259. Retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1060111

Wing, J. M. 2006 Computational thinking. Commun. ACM 49, 33–35.