Abstract:

Although physical computing has been in existence since 2004, research on the educational effect of applying physical computing education is still insufficient. One of the reasons for this is that there are a lot of students who complain about the difficulty in assembling and constructing the tools, which takes more time than the programming using the physical computing tools. However, when instructing physical computing in information science, it is necessary to focus on the operation design and programming process for control rather than assembly of physical computing devices.

In this paper, we analyze the effect of the modular physical computing tool and the experimental results of the learner’s learning motivation, which can concentrate more on the operation design and programming process for the control. In this study, first year middle school students were divided into experiment group (25 students) and control group(25 students). As a result, the learning motivation of experiment group was 6.7% higher than that of control group. The learning motivation test tool used in this study was modified by Keller. The questionnaire items consisted of 28 items, which consisted of 7 items of attention, 7 items of relatedness, 7 items of self-confidence, and 7 items of satisfaction.

As a result, it can be seen that the modular physical computing tool which focuses on the operation design and programming process for control rather than the physical computing device is effective for increasing the learning motivation of the physical computing education.

Keywords:

Physical computing, learning motivation, modular physical computing, programming process.