MATHSCRATCH - BRINGING PROGRAMMING AND MATHEMATICAL SKILLS INTO HIGHER EDUCATION

According to some authors, the success of students’ integration in the courses of Differential and Integral Calculus, is driven by the need of putting together basic knowledge in mathematics, acquired during the Secondary School, with essential knowledge for the frequency of the first year in Engineering Degree at the University. It is from this compatibility that a better integration of students in the courses arises. A link between secondary and higher education is urgently needed, reducing the degree of demotivation that lead to early school dropout with consequent implication in academic failure.

However, a growing multiplicity in the basic training of students, with significantly different grades of access in mathematics, causes difficulties not only in Mathematics-based courses but also in courses of Introduction to Programming. Both problems have been studied by project members.

In this scenario, the integration of students in higher education, namely in Engineering degrees, has led to a process that concurrently with the recruitment of students to these areas of knowledge in visible decline, strategies to prevent students from being away from the processes of teaching and learning are defined. It is also important to draw a plan that foster positive attitudes towards mathematics to reinforce self-efficacy.

This intervention has to be carried out in higher education from a very early age and has to gather a set of strategies that reverse the students' alienation in the areas of mathematics. Either by reorganizing the functioning and evaluation of courses or by constructing instruments that facilitate the learning process and that promote student involvement.

The MathScratch project aims the creation of products (games / animations) on a Mathematics theme, in basic and elementary concepts that are considered essential for the integration of students in higher education in engineering degrees using Scratch programming. These resources will later be placed on a platform for the use of the 1st year students with difficulties in mathematics. We intend to support students and facilitate their integration into higher education by creating a sustainable structure that includes projects carried out throughout this school year, identifying the greatest difficulties experienced in areas of knowledge considered essential.

The project is carried out as an extra-curricular activity, by students of the 1st year of the degree in Biomedical Engineering of ISEC - Coimbra Institute of Engineering (Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra), and it will be evaluated in two courses.