Professional Development

This spring I plan to conduct a pilot study on elementary school students' development of computational thinking through the use of unplugged and plugged coding activities.  Students’ computational thinking will be observed through an afterschool coding program for 12-20, 4th-5th students at a local elementary school. The afterschool program will meet for an hour, once a week and will last seven weeks. The study aims to begin with unplugged coding activities. Students will then transition knowledge and skills gain to a hybrid of unplugged and plugged activities (Microsoft Bits), and ultimately to plugged (Scratch) activities. Students will spend approximately two weeks in each stage of the program. 

International Society for Technology in Education, Member