Abstract:

The ability to understand and skillfully use computers will be extremely important for children in any future career. Programming education in elementary schools does not teach students to code in a programming language, as is done in higher education institutions, but rather to learn computational thinking. The goal is to motivate students to learn computers by giving them a sense of enjoyment and accomplishment.

However, there are several problems in introducing programming education in Japan. Japanese elementary schools have 30 to 35 students per class, and one teacher must be in charge of teaching one class. Although programming materials for use in small groups are commercially available, there are no materials designed for large-group classes. Elementary schools have limited budgets for ICT equipment, including computers and robots. Elementary school teachers do not have the programming skills and know-how to teach children.

To solve these problems, we have proposed a new educational approach that incorporates the advantages of both unplugged and physical programming. In the new educational method, using stickers with robot control commands (Programming Sticker: PS), each child thinks of a problem-solving procedure at his or her desk, and then applies the sticker regarding the robot's control according to that procedure. This PS is a special sticker that can be applied and removed as many times as needed, allowing the children to make trial-and-error decisions. Next, when the scanner reads the sheet with PS attached, it is automatically coded and control commands are transferred to the robot. Children can confirm the operation of the program by running the robot to which the program they created has been transferred on an actual course. From scanning to moving the robot, the operation was simple, and even teachers unfamiliar with programming education should have been able to manage the class.

However, for teachers with no programming experience at all, this material seems to be too difficult to manage classes. Therefore, as a first step in the introduction of this education, university students explained to the children. On the other hand, the COVID19 pandemic often restricted university students' off-campus activities, making it difficult for university students to travel to elementary schools to teach classes. Therefore, we asked university students to explain remotely using ZOOM, and while ensuring the safety of university students and children, we decided to have teachers support children locally. A large display was set up in the classroom, and the university students explained the outline of programming and how to use the materials for about 25 minutes while watching the children via camera images. After the explanation, the children worked through the worksheet, thinking at their own pace, applying programming stickers, and finally moving the robot to confirm that the program was working correctly.

From the questionnaire results after class, more than 90% answered that they enjoyed this class, and more than 85% answered that they were interested in programming. These results indicate that it is possible to run classes under the COVID19 pandemic using the new teaching materials and that they could be used for programming education for third grade elementary school students.

Keywords:

Computational thinking education, elementary school, programming with stickers.