Recognizing computational thinking patterns

# Poscast <iframe src="https://www.ivoox.com/player_ej_137865333_6_1.html?c1=9798bf" width="100%" height="200" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" loading="lazy"></iframe> <%"---"%> tags: 📥️/📜️/🟥️ publish: true aliases: - Recognizing computational thinking patterns - basawapatnaRecognizingComputationalThinking2011 url: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1953163.1953241 doi: citekey: basawapatnaRecognizingComputationalThinking2011 keywords: authors: [Ashok Basawapatna, Kyu Han Koh, Alexander Repenning, David C. Webb, Krista Sekeres Marshall] type: paper status: created: updated: <%"---"%> ```dataview TABLE created, updated as modified, tags, type, related FROM " " WHERE contains(related, "basawapatnaRecognizingComputationalThinking2011") ``` > [!link]- > zotero_link:: [Full Text PDF](zotero://select/library/items/INHPXFHF) > [!cite]- > citekey:: basawapatnaRecognizingComputationalThinking2011 > [!abstract]- > abstract:: End-user game design tools are effective in motivating and exposing students with no prior programming experience to computer science. However, while there is good evidence that these environments are effective motivators, the question remains what do students actually learn? For our purposes, using AgentSheets, we would like to know if students can apply the knowledge obtained from programming games to creating science simulations. Specifically, we want to better understand if students are able to recognize Computational Thinking Patterns (CTP) from their game programming experience. Computational Thinking Patterns are abstract programming patterns that enable agent interactions not only in games but also in science simulations. Students and teachers who participated in a game design summer institute were administered a Computational Thinking Pattern Quiz (CTP Quiz). This quiz tested the participants' ability to recognize and understand patterns in a context removed from game programming. We found that participants, for the most part, were able to understand and recognize the patterns in a variety of contexts > [!keywords]- > keywords:: > [!authors]- > authors:: Ashok Basawapatna, Kyu Han Koh, Alexander Repenning, David C. Webb, Krista Sekeres Marshall > [!meta]- > url:: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1953163.1953241 > doi:: > [!related]- > [!hypothesis]- > hypothesis:: > [!methodology]- > methodology:: > [!result]- Result(s) > results:: > [!summary]- Summary of Key Points > summary:: ## Notes | Highlight Color | Meaning | | ---------------------------------------------- | --------------------------- | | Red | información imprescindible | | Orange | Información Importante | | Yellow | Información Interesante | | Green | Temas y sub temas | | Blue | Citas relevantes del autor | | Purple | Temas nuevos por investigar | - "Computational Thinking Patterns are abstract programming patterns that enable agent interactions not only in games but also in science simulations.” [Page ](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=&annotation=SI5HN8RA) Tag #CT-Patrones, #CT-Abstracción - "However, the definition of Computational Thinking at the present time is abstract at best [8]. For this method of instruction it is essential we concretely define what exactly we expect students to learn. In other words, for Computational Thinking to become a notion that is actionable, teachers require more than just abstract definitions of what Computational Thinking is or is not.” [Page ](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=&annotation=ZM75HRCC) Tag #CT-Definción, #CT-Abstracción, #CT-Frase-CT - "After glancing at some of the current definitions of Computational Thinking, he indicated that he still did not quite understand what Computational Thinking really was, but he had an expectation. He would want to be able to walk up to a student participating in game design and ask:” [Page ](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=&annotation=8ZHWEUQL) Tag #CT-Definición, #CT-Frase-CT - "To put it another way, the teacher’s expectation is that the student should be able to use their programming knowledge to solve real world problems.” [Page ](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=&annotation=5R7WZL9R) Tag #CT-Resolución-Problemas - "important benefit of thinking computationally and an indication of STEM proficiency” [Page 2](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=2&annotation=AU238AF9) Tag #STEM-Educación ![[Images/img-zotero/basawapatnaRecognizingComputationalThinking2011/basawapatnaRecognizingComputationalThinking2011-2-x53-y257.png]] - "Generation: To satisfy this pattern, an agent is required to create another agent; in real life, for example, raindrops emanate from clouds. Analogously, in predator/prey science simulations, animals breed to create new animals. Conversely, the Absorb pattern is when one agent deletes another agent.” [Page 2](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=2&annotation=82VCDH5D) Tag - "Collision: The collision pattern occurs when two agents physically collide. In real life, a car crashing into another car is an example of a collision. In science simulations atoms can collide with other atoms to make new elements.” [Page 2](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=2&annotation=27TBCW7T) Tag - "Transportation: In the transportation pattern, one agent carries another agent. In real life a car transports a person. In science simulations red blood cells transport oxygen molecules to parts of the body.” [Page 2](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=2&annotation=9A4HTFZS) Tag - "Diffusion: Diffusion allows for the “scent” of an agent to be dispersed around a level. In real life, the scent of freshly baked bread originating from the kitchen is present in other rooms. In a science simulation diffusion can be used to depict how heat is transferred from one side of a heated metal bar to the other side.” [Page 2](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=2&annotation=KHUL299Y) Tag - "Hill Climbing: An agent employing a hill-climbing algorithm looks at neighboring values of interest and moves towards the one with the largest value. These values could be, for example, the “scent” of another agent. In real life, mosquitoes hill climb the smell given off by humans.” [Page 2](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=2&annotation=R97YX6BY) Tag - "Further research into automatically recognizing which patterns a student has used to implement a game/simulation yielded an analysis called the Computational Thinking Pattern Graph [10]. The Computational Thinking Pattern Graph employs an approach similar to Latent Semantic Analysis to create a graph that depicts the Computational Thinking Patterns used to program a given game [12].” [Page 2](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=2&annotation=8FB5S4I8) Tag - "asically, the underlying code of a game or simulation is compared to canonical Computational Thinking Patterns coded in the same programming language.” [Page 2](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=2&annotation=BE4U2LWD) Tag - "Educational Characteristics of Game Design: 1) Enables students to transfer their skills to science simulations and/or mathematical models 2) Is based on concepts that are easily recognizable a and usable by both instructors and students 3) Is automatically measurable for evaluation and progress tracking purposes.” [Page 2](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=2&annotation=RWA7HZ4K) Tag #Game-Design - "This relates to point 2 in the above Educational Characteristics of Game Design.” [Page 3](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=3&annotation=8Z9NNQEK) Tag - "The Computational Thinking Pattern Quiz starts with several videos that depict one or a combination of Computational Thinking Patterns. The last question of the Computational Thinking Pattern Quiz is a paragraph specification of a given science simulation, and game designers are asked to list the Computational Thinking Patterns that should be used to implement this simulation.” [Page 3](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=3&annotation=5V58ZKUK) Tag - "Therefore, the Computational Thinking Pattern Quiz could be an important aspect of evaluating what students actually learn from end-user game programming as well as method of evaluating the usability of Computational Thinking Patterns themselves.” [Page 3](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=3&annotation=NPMCMVEK) Tag - "The curriculum for the Summer Institute exposed all the participants to multiple Computational Thinking Patterns. In week 1, participants programmed Frogger, Sims, and Space Invaders (refer to Table 1 to see the Computational Thinking Patterns implemented in these games). In week 2, the participants implemented two science simulations and the game Pacman (which uses the patterns diffusion and hill climbing).” [Page 3](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=3&annotation=BPZMI49I) Tag - "Based on what participants experienced at the Summer Institute, we would expect the following patterns to be identified as necessary to complete the simulation: • Generation because the animals breed creating new animals. • Absorption because the foxes eat (or absorb) rabbits and the rabbits eat grass. • Diffusion because the rabbits diffuse a scent around the level. • Hill Climbing because the foxes follow the rabbit’s diffused scent and the rabbits seek out grass when hungry.” [Page 4](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=4&annotation=IRPKGA63) Tag - "Table 2 depicts the average scores for each question. In general, the results show that participants were able to understand and recognize Computational Thinking Patterns in a different context; the average score for all questions was over 78%, and for the first 7 questions, the average score was over 84%. This is remarkable since the participants came from diverse backgrounds and had minimal instruction on Computational Thinking Patterns before they took the quiz.” [Page 4](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=4&annotation=SM9UHLW2) Tag - "Question 1 depicted two people sledding down a hill and with a sledder collision at the bottom. Surprisingly, every participant got one of the two Computational Thinking Patterns leading to every participant getting the question right. Some participants even wrote both Computational Thinking Patterns though it was specifically not required by the question. This is not too surprising since collision and transport are both taught in Frogger, the first game everyone learns (and the one that is most taught by participants in their respective schools). The following answer is indicative of a correct answer to both patterns: “The people are being transported by the tubes and the announcer is hit (collision) like the frog and the truck.”” [Page 4](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=4&annotation=U3V69KHA) Tag - "Question 2 was a video of a marching band coming out of a tunnel. As with Question 1, the participants correctly identified this pattern as the average score was 93%. The following correct answer is representative of how many participants described the game/video similarity: “Generation of trucks, logs, turtles is similar (sic) to the tunnel generating people so to speak.”” [Page 4](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=4&annotation=E6PRHSZC) Tag - ". Ambiguity brought about by the implied video context is a shortcoming of the Computational Thinking Pattern Quiz. The typical correct answer resembled the following. “There is a collision with two different team members just as the car collides with the frog. . .”” [Page 5](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=5&annotation=JDIUHWXQ) Tag - "Question 4 depicted a hot dog eating contest. This question was answered correctly by 95% of the participants; most people seemed to understand that hotdogs being eaten by a person was similar to how Pacman absorbs the pellets. This is one of the main patterns in Pacman. Furthermore, absorb is a simple pattern that is also shared in other games such as Frogger when a truck is absorbed by a tunnel at the end of the road; thus, participants were very familiar with this particular pattern. A typical answer for Question 4 looked as follows: “PacMan eats pellets and they erase, just like the hot dogs erase when they are eaten.” [Page 5](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=5&annotation=BD9KIYHI) Tag - "Question 5 was a video of a football player being chased by other football players. This question had 2 answers, if the participants answered or described hill climbing or diffusion they were awarded a correct answer. Similar to Question 4, everybody basically answered Question 5 correctly (98%). An indicative correct answer given by participants is as follows. “Both are seeking - the football players are seeking the player with the ball and the ghosts are seeking Pacman.”” [Page 5](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=5&annotation=J3M6XMJJ) Tag #CT-Patrones, #CT-Ejemplo - "However, participants still uniformly understood the connection between this Computational Thinking Pattern of diffusion in Pacman and the diffusion of one liquid into another as 95% of participants got this question right. The following is a common participant answer we came across “This shows the diffusion of the dye which represents the scent we assigned to pacman.”” [Page 5](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=5&annotation=325Q6UAQ) Tag - "Question 7 depicted marathon runners running on a path towards the finish line much like the ants in the ant simulation followed pheromones to food and followed an implicit path back to the nest once finding food.” [Page 5](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=5&annotation=SQA5EQYT) Tag - "For example, the following incorrect answer was given by one participant: “This is similar to the ant simulation because they both have a large number of similar "agents" moving around quickly.”” [Page 5](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=5&annotation=PPXAS3SF) Tag - "A common correct answer participants provided is as follows: “The runners are behaving like the ants after they have located some food. They are all heading in the same general direction as fast as they can.”” [Page 5](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=5&annotation=DXCH2U55) Tag - "Question 8 would be the most challenging and the most indicative of whether participants could actively recognize and transfer the Computational Thinking Patterns they learned in prior game development to a science simulation. Surprisingly, the results were positive. 20 of the 43 participants were able to name or describe all 4 computational thinking patterns. An excerpt representative answer from this group is as follows “You would use collaborative diffusion, the fox will hill climb to find a rabbit, the fox will then absorb the rabbit. . . When one (of the) foxes are stacked on another fox it will generate a new fox.”” [Page 5](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=5&annotation=24RXG64T) Tag - "Though participants did well in the Computational Thinking Pattern Quiz, there are a few issues with using this as a method of evaluation for Computational Thinking Patterns. The first, as referred to in Question 3 and Question 7, is the possible video ambiguity as to the specific Computational Thinking Pattern they would use to program a specific phenomenon.” [Page 5](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=5&annotation=CIP3CM7S) Tag - "however, these were not at the generalized level of Computational Thinking Patterns, but rather, at a more specific implementation level or more of an aesthetic similarity between the video and the previously programmed game.” [Page 6](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=6&annotation=KQT5SJSX) Tag - "The Computational Thinking Quiz results imply that in 1 to 2 weeks time the diverse participants in the Summer Institute were able to recognize Computational Thinking Patterns in a variety of different contexts. The fact that middle school teachers and community college students could relatively easily pick up on these patterns helps to support point 2 in the Educational Characteristics of Game Design above wherein we ask if the educational elements are readily recognizable and understandable by teachers to students. This coupled with prior research showing that Computational Thinking Patterns can be used for automatic evaluation and that students tend to transfer these patterns when creating simulations, indicates that Computational Thinking Patterns are one way to measure the educational benefit of end-user game design.” [Page 6](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=6&annotation=7QDHVN7N) Tag - "Claiming an educational benefit through end-user game design necessitates the ability for students to gain tangible and measurable Computational Thinking skills in order to be useful in the classroom.” [Page 6](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=6&annotation=UUNZQZY7) Tag - "In this paper, we show that Computational Thinking Patterns are readily recognizable and understandable by teachers and community college students across different contexts, which is an important step in showing the usefulness of Computational Thinking Patterns in the classroom.” [Page 6](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=6&annotation=W4239CAF) Tag - "Future research will look at other ways to make Computational Thinking Patterns more explicit in the programming process, identify more useful Computational Thinking Patterns, and develop further evaluations of student learning and methods of evaluating the usefulness of patterns themselves. We will administer the Computational Thinking Quiz to over 2000 middle school students during the 2010-2011 school year. Results from the quiz will further inform this research.” [Page 6](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/INHPXFHF?page=6&annotation=JSY8XAZU) Tag #CT-Patrones, #CT-Investigación > [!context]- > ==(How this article relates to other work in the field; how it ties in with key issues and findings by others, including yourself)== > context:: > [!significance]- > ==(to the field; in relation to your own work)== > significance::