This research arises within the scope of the Postgraduate Course of Specialization in Technologies and Robotics in Elementary School. Its aim is to analyze the impact of robotics and programming on the motivation and involvement of students in the development of computational thinking, in the learning of mathematical concepts. The study was…

The purpose of this research project was to design, deliver, and informally assess the content and methodology of an introductory online course for the educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students (N=20) that focused on the block-based coding language, Scratch. Prior work by The Playful Learning Lab examined various STEM resources and their…

This article introduces a new learner's self-assessment environment as CEHL that allows comparison of learners' programs with those elaborated by the teacher. The subjacent idea is to indirectly compare programs through their graphical representations described by ontologies. So, CEHL developed so-called S_Onto_ALPPWA which allows comparing…

Funded through a grant from Texas Workforce Commission, DesignHER Code Camps were created to use the fashion interests of underserved middle school girls as springboards to interest them in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Results were generally consistent with the achievement of camp goals--(a) increase the interest of middle…

This study investigates the development of algorithmic thinking as a part of computational thinking skills and self-efficacy of primary school pupils using programmable robots in different instruction variants. Computational thinking is defined in the context of twenty-first century skills and describes processes involved in (re)formulating a…

Over the past 7 years, we pioneered the development of a program blending dance choreography, computer programming, and a virtual environment to teach computational thinking, broadening pathways for more diverse students. We investigated the ways in which upper elementary and middle school students creating dance performances for virtual…

Performance in and perceptions of computational thinking (CT) are considered vital dimensions for comprehensively assessing CT skills of students. In this study, secondary school students' CT performance and their perceptions were examined in terms of certain variables including gender, grade level, achievement and self-efficacy.…

The pervasiveness of Computer Science (CS) in today's digital society and the extensive use of computational methods in other sciences call for its introduction in the school curriculum. Hence, Computer Science Education is becoming more and more relevant. In CS K-12 education, computational thinking (CT) is one of the abused buzzwords: different…

The National Center for Biotechnology Information Entrez Direct (EDirect) software facilitates programmatic access to numerous biomedical, chemical, and literature databases from within a Unix terminal. EDirect has traditionally been used for command line access to NCBI data within the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. This…

An analysis is presented in this study that provides insight into a practical training process and its impact on teachers and their viewpoints toward the integrated STEM approach used in that training process, together with educational coding and robotics, over the first years of compulsory primary education, where STEM implementations are…

Robot toys can be used to promote STEM subjects, particularly coding and mathematics. The lesson described in this article illustrates how a robot toy was used with a number line to explore equality and missing addends in Year 1. The lesson progression models how activities can be sequenced to build on developing understandings while supporting…

Feedback on how students progress through completing subgoals can improve students' learning and motivation in programming. Detecting subgoal completion is a challenging task, and most learning environments do so either with "expert-authored" models or with "data-driven" models. Both models have advantages that are…

The three-dimensional design and production technologies are today widely used in many fields. Automotive, health, art and education, and especially architecture and engineering are among the prominent examples. The three-dimensional design technology can be categorized into two dimensions: design and production. The first of these dimensions,…

The 21st century has caused numerous significant impacts and advancements in the lives of people. Information Technology (IT) has contributed essential benefits in the different areas of the society. One of the vital skills in developing IT solutions is programming. For many, writing computer programs may be a very challenging task which may…

As technologically gifted students apply their abilities to computer science, they naturally flow through the talent development stages of potential, competency, and expertise. Processes that have always been important for gifted students to learn as they develop potential are embedded in learning code, which engages the beginning programmer in…