x, 40 p. : col. ill. / Though the first computer programmers were female, women currently make up only a quarter of the computing industry. This lack of diversity jeopardizes technical innovation, creativity and profitability. As demand for talented computing professionals grows, both academia and industry are seeking ways to reach out to groups of individuals who are underrepresented in computer science, the largest of which is women. Women are most likely to succeed in computer science when they are introduced to computing concepts as children and are exposed over a long period of time. In this paper I show that computational thinking (the art of abstraction and automation) can be introduced earlier than has been demonstrated before. Building on ideas being developed for the state of California, I have created an entertaining and engaging educational software prototype that makes primary concepts accessible down to the third grade level. / Committee in charge: Michal Young, Chairperson; Joanna Goode, Member

Master of Science / Department of Computer Science / Daniel A. Andresen / This thesis presents a curriculum designed for 5th and 6th grade students attending a summer camp for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The curriculum uses several concepts from educational theory and computer science education research. It also uses techniques such as cognitive apprenticeship, expansive framing, and scaffolded lessons to increase student learning outcomes. It was taught during two cohorts of a STEM summer camp. The curriculum is analyzed through self-efficacy surveys both before and after the class, measuring how students judged their own capability to use skills learned during the class. Analysis of the data shows that the increase in student self-efficacy has a medium to large effect size overall, as well as student self-efficacy with many computational thinking skills. Data from various population groups based on gender, previous STEM experience, and socio-economic status indicators is also analyzed. Finally, many areas of future work and improvement are presented and discussed. The outcome of this work is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the curriculum presented in increasing student self-efficacy with computational thinking skills, specifically by showing the links between content in the curriculum and specific computational thinking skills.

abstract: Computational thinking, the fundamental way of thinking in computer science, including information sourcing and problem solving behind programming, is considered vital to children who live in a digital era. Most of current educational games designed to teach children about coding either rely on external curricular materials or are too complicated to work well with young children. In this thesis project, Guardy, an iOS tower defense game, was developed to help children over 8 years old learn about and practice using basic concepts in programming. The game is built with the SpriteKit, a graphics rendering and animation infrastructure in Apple’s integrated development environment Xcode. It simplifies switching among different game scenes and animating game sprites in the development. In a typical game, a sequence of operations is arranged by players to destroy incoming enemy minions. Basic coding concepts like looping, sequencing, conditionals, and classification are integrated in different levels. In later levels, players are required to type in commands and put them in an order to keep playing the game. To reduce the difficulty of the usability testing, a method combining questionnaires and observation was conducted with two groups of college students who either have no programming experience or are familiar with coding. The results show that Guardy has the potential to help children learn programming and practice computational thinking. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2017

Submitted by Kilvya Braga (kilvyabraga@hotmail.com) on 2018-05-16T10:48:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 PALLOMA ALENCAR ALVES MESTRE - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCC) 2017.pdf: 2170167 bytes, checksum: f939e7944d1fb4a51c0fa40fc7eb3be1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-16T10:48:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PALLOMA ALENCAR ALVES MESTRE - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCC) 2017.pdf: 2170167 bytes, checksum: f939e7944d1fb4a51c0fa40fc7eb3be1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017 / O Pensamento Computacional (PC) compreende um conjunto de habilidades computacionais para resolução de problemas das diversas áreas do conhecimento, combinando o pensamento matemático e de engenharia. Estas habilidades são fundamentais para todos, não apenas para cientistas da computação. Assim, estratégias para adoção do PC na educação básica têm sido amplamente estudadas nos últimos anos. Alguns trabalhos sugerem que o seu uso associado a disciplinas, como a matemática, desde os primeiros anos da educação básica, pode melhorar as habilidades dos alunos na resolução de problemas e contribuir para o desenvolvimento do raciocínio matemático, sistemático e algorítmico. No entanto, existem poucas evidências de como o PC está relacionado com esta disciplina. Nosso objetivo é propor estratégias para resolução de problemas matemáticos por meio de um Mapeamento entre as Capacidades Fundamentais da Matemática e os Conceitos do PC. Além disso, desenvolvemos um banco de questões de matemática associadas ao PC com intuito de disseminar as estratégias elaboradas. Os resultados das nossas investigações indicam que o PC pode ser facilmente integrado ao ensino de Matemática e que os nove conceitos de PC avaliados estão relacionados com as Capacidades Fundamentais da Matemática, sendo os conceitos de Análise de Dados, Abstração, Decomposição de Problemas e Algoritmos e Procedimentos os mais relevantes para esta disciplina. / Computational Thinking (PC) comprises a set of computational abilities to solve problems of the various areas of knowledge, combining mathematical and engineering thinking. These skills are fundamental to everyone, not just to computer scientists. Thus, strategies for PC adoption in basic education have been extensively studied in recent years. Some papers suggest that its use associated with disciplines, suchas mathematics, from the earliest years of basic education, can improve students’ problem-solving skills and contribute to the development of mathematical, systematic, and algorithm icreasoning. However, the reislittle evidence of how the PC is related to mathematics. Our objective is to propose strategies for solving mathematical problems through a Mapping between the Fundamental Capabilities of Mathematics and the Concepts of the PC. In addition ,we developed a database of mathematical questions associated with the PC in order to disseminate the strategies developed. The results of our investigations indicate that the PC can be easily integrated into the teaching of Mathematics and that the nine concepts of PC evaluated are related to the Fundamental Capabilities of Mathematics, being the concepts of Data Analysis, Abstraction, Problem Decomposition and Algorithms and Procedures that are most relevant to this discipline.

Programming and the possibility to express one’s intent to a machine is becoming a very important skill in our digitalizing society. Today, instructing a machine, such as a computer to perform actions is done through programming. What if this could be done with human language? This thesis examines how new technologies and methods in the form of Natural Language Processing can be used to make programming more accessible by translating intent expressed in natural language into code that a computer can execute. Related research has studied using natural language as a programming language and using natural language to instruct robots. These studies have shown promising results but are hindered by strict syntaxes, limited domains and inability to handle ambiguity. Studies have also been made using Natural Language Processing to analyse source code, turning code into natural language. This thesis has the reversed approach. By utilizing Natural Language Processing techniques, an intent can be translated into code containing concepts such as sequential execution, loops and conditional statements. In this study, a system for converting intent, expressed in English sentences, into code is developed. To analyse this approach to programming, an evaluation framework is developed, evaluating the system during the development process as well as usage of the final system. The results show that this way of programming might have potential but conclude that the Natural Language Processing models still have too low accuracy. Further research is required to increase this accuracy to further assess the potential of this way of programming.

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the knowledge of teachers work regarding programming as an educational tool to strengthen the school´s mission towards digital competence. To approach this issue, a qualitative approach was adopted and interviews were conducted with a limited number of teachers in primary school, working with pupils in the lower ages. The statements and stories from the respondents, constitutes the empirical basis of this study and has been analyzed and discussed on the basis of this study’s research background and framework theory. The results show that the informants find the new implementations relevant and challenging. The informants use different kinds of methods, within three overall strategies, when integrate programming in the mathematics curricula. The results also show that the informants believe that programming methods contributes to the development of skills such as strategies for problem solving, collaboration skills and evaluative thinking. We argue that the teacher´s positive views regarding programming in the curriculum has to do with the understanding of the societal development. We also argue that a more equal set of educational skills for teachers regarding how to teach programming should be an advantage for the equivalent school system.

Orientador: Ronaldo Celso Messias Correia / Resumo: Diversas pesquisas vêm sendo realizadas para o desenvolvimento de metodologias com o objetivo de melhorar o desempenho dos alunos na disciplina de matemática em avaliações internas e externas. Dentre as pesquisas, o uso da computação tem sido destacado. A computação evoluiu muito de acordo com a necessidade de resolver problemas, sendo a matemática uma disciplina que trabalha com a resolução destes, existe uma relação entre estas duas áreas. Motivado pela relação existente entre essas áreas do saber, este trabalho apresenta de forma detalhada a correlação entre as habilidades do Pensamento Computacional com base no currículo apontado pela SBC, com a disciplina de Matemática, conforme as habilidades explicitadas na BNCC. As conexões entre as duas áreas foram expostas na forma de uma organização sistemática apontando quais as habilidades matemáticas estão ligadas a cada conceito do Pensamento Computacional, e para cada habilidade relacionada foi proposta uma ou mais atividades com o objetivo de nortear o trabalho do professor em sala ao inserir o Pensamento Computacional em sua didática. As atividades sugeridas foram classificadas com relação ao seu nível cognitivo, de acordo com o método de classificação da Taxonomia de Bloom. Os resultados Sistematização proposta da relação entre a Matemática e o Pensamento Computacional norteará educadores e escolas na formulação de seus currículos, sendo um referencial, que aponta em quais habilidades da BNCC é possível inserir habilidades ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Several studies have been conducted to develops methodologies in order to improve students’ performance in internal and external mathematics subject. Among these researched methods, the use of computation is highlighted. Computation has developed considerably due to the necessity of problem solving and Mathematics is a subject in which functions as a problem solver. Therefore, there is a relation between these areas. Inspired by that, this paper presents the detailed affinity between the Computational Thinking (CT) skills – based on the curriculum elaborated by the SBC – and the Mathematics subject – as presented in the BNCC. The relations between the two areas were explained systematically by presenting which Mathematical skill is connected to which concept of the Computational Thinking, and to each related skill, one or more activities were suggested with the purpose of guiding the teacher’s work in the classroom by inserting Computational Thinking in his didactics. The suggested activities were classified by its cognitive levels according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. The systematization result of the relationship between both areas will help teachers and schools in their curriculum's formulation, being it a source that indicates in which skills from the BNCC is possible to add skills from the CT. / Mestre

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Samhället går i en mer digitaliserad riktning vilket gör att även skolan behöver ta detta steg. 2017 gjorde regeringen ett förtydligande och förstärkte kursplaner och ämnesplaner för grund- och gymnasieskolan. Därför var målet med detta examensarbete att ta reda på vad lärarna har för förutsättningar inför revideringen samt hur de implementerar programmeringen i sin undervisning. För att ta reda på detta gjordes semistrukturerade intervjuer med 7 verksamma lärare i årskurserna 7-9 från 4 olika skolor. Tidigare forskning pekar på flertalet brister kring implementeringen av programmering inom matematik. En av dessa är att det finns för lite information kring programmeringsdidaktik. Vilket även är en av slutsatserna från studien då lärarna upplever en osäkerhet gällande didaktiken då de anser att de inte har tillräcklig ämneskunskap. Majoriteten av de tillfrågade lärarna hade önskat en gedigen programmeringsutbildning där de får ämneskunskaper både inom visuella och textbaserade programmeringsmiljöer samt didaktiska verktyg och eventuellt förslag på lektionsplaneringar.

Datalogiskt tänkande (eng. Computational thinking) är ett relativt nytt begrepp som har fått stor uppmärksamhet på senare år. Datalogiskt tänkande handlar om att tänka på problem på ett sådant sätt som gör att datorer kan lösa dem. Flera forskarteam hävdar att datalogiskt tänkande är en färdighet lika fundamental som att läsa, skriva eller räkna i framtidens samhälle.Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om det går att utveckla datalogiskt tänkande genom problemlösning i matematik. En lektionsserie har genomförts där elever fick arbeta med problemlösning i matematik. Elevernas för- och efterkunskaper i datalogiskt tänkande testades både innan och efter lektionsserien. Studien är ett kvasiexperiment med en kontrollgrupp och experimentgrupp där resultatet från testerna i datalogiskt tänkande har analyserats med det kvantitativa analysprogrammet SPSS.Resultatet från studien visar inte på några förändringar i datalogiskt tänkande mellan kontrollgrupp och experimentgrupp. Den främsta orsaken till detta resultat menar författarna beror på att lektionsserien i problemlösning var för kort. En annan karaktär på de matematiska problem som eleverna arbetade med under lektionsserien hade också möjligen kunnat ge ett annat resultat på studien.