This paper explores Computational Thinking (CT) through the experiences and interactions of sixth-grade students as they were engaging in a science lesson utilizing robotics. This robotics unit institutes the shifting from traditional to engaging hands-on activities coupled with CT skills that are exciting, intriguing, and inviting to students.…

This research study explored robotics as the catalyst for computational thinking (CT) by sixth-grade students as they are engaged in a science lesson. The interactions, understandings, and applications are discussed, along with the participants' connections and implementations of CT concepts (decomposition, abstraction, pattern recognition, and…

When students reason during school science, they often refer to conceptions that are derived from out-of-school experiences and are poor proxies for science orthodoxy. However, for some areas of science, these conceptions represent only a proportion of students' full conceptual knowledge, for tacit understanding exists that is superior to the…

Contrasts artificial behavior with artificial intelligence, traces Law of Effect's development from a verbal statement into a mathematical model providing algorithms for artificial behavior programs, and describes an attempt to use computer graphics and animation to simulate behavior and teach abstract concepts. (MBR)

This exploratory study had two goals: (1) to identify signs of abstraction and consolidation of abstractions of functional concepts in students in a situation-based curriculum; and (2) to use theoretical arguments as well as experimental evidence in order to shape notions of abstraction and consolidation of abstractions. The methodology was…

The purpose of this study was to compare traditional classification training for a set of abstract concepts with multiple-relations training consisting of inference practice and the use of a content diagram. To examine this, 200 undergraduate and graduate psychology students completed a Web-based tutorial covering the abstract concepts of a…