Abstract:

The article deals with the possibilities of teaching algorithm and programming in primary schools. It describes the means and environments in which the programming code that expresses the solution procedure is not in textual form (i.e. not using syntactic notation), but is expressed using graphical building blocks, symbols, pictures – the so-called icons. This is often referred as an iconic programming environment – and the process of creation as iconic programming. We would like to introduce to primary school computer science teachers an electronic programming textbook that is oriented towards the creation of programs for controlling a virtual robot VEX in the VEXcode environment.

The article discusses the possibilities of teaching the basics of programming-by-programming robots. It shows the possibilities of using virtual robots as a possible alternative to robot kits and interactive iconic programming as a tool for writing programs to control them. Allows various sensors to be used to control the robot's actions to solve specified tasks.

Robotics kits and online environments aim to teach children the basics of robotics and programming. Real robotics kits usually allow you to build several different robots to perform different tasks. The kit contains all the necessary building blocks to create, program and move a purpose-built robot. The robots are equipped with several types of sensors that allow them to perform certain actions independently based on a program. Virtual robots are a very good alternative, which are often faithful copies of real robots or robotic kits.

In this paper, we discuss the programming of the VEX virtual robot, which has also a real equivalent in different version. VEX virtual robot provides a suitable environment for building and programming robots - to use various sensors to enrich the application capabilities of the basic version of the robot, which is available by opening this virtual educational robotics tool at vr.vex.com. The electronic textbook we have created provides ideas for teaching robotics in a virtual environment and allows to gain first experience in building and programming robots.

The electronic online textbook describes this virtual environment in detail, step-by-step by solving problems dominated by previously explained programming elements and building blocks. For computer science teachers, we have developed a series of method sheets as an idea for the implementation of teaching units with examples of solved problems for elementary school students. The electronic textbook as well as the methodological materials are freely available at https://vexcode-ucebnica.webnode.sk/. Teachers who used the textbook in a questionnaire survey evaluated its quality. We evaluated their answers and opinions about the textbook. The results of the survey, supplemented by our recommendations for practice, are presented at the end of the article.

Keywords:

Educational robotics, robot programming, virtual robot, programmable robot programming in elementary school.