Visual and unplugged coding lessons with smart toys

TL;DR

This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of two smart toys that facilitate visual and unplugged coding lessons for K-12 students, integrating physical objects with computational thinking activities.

Contribution

It introduces novel smart toys that combine physical manipulatives with visual coding to enhance computational thinking education, inspired by established unplugged methods.

Findings

Positive feedback from teachers on educational activities

Buyers' reviews highlight toy engagement and educational value

Evaluation shows increased interest in computational thinking

Abstract

Our Computer science k-12 education research group and the educational toy company Quercetti have been collaborating together to design and manufacture toys that help stimulate and consolidate so-called computational thinking. This approach is inspired by methods already consolidated in the literature and widespread worldwide such as the Bebras tasks and CS-Unplugged. This paper describes two smart toys, their design process, educational activities that can be proposed by teachers exploiting the two toys, the evaluation's results from some teachers, and finally feedback and reviews from buyers. The main activities proposed by these toys leverage visual coding through small colored physical items (e.g., pegs and balls) to deliver the unplugged activities to young users.