Teaching graph algorithms to children of all ages

Abstract

We report on our experiences in teaching graph theory and algorithms to school children, aged 5 to 17. Our objectives were to demonstrate that children can discover quite complex mathematical concepts, and are able to work with abstractions and use computation reasoning from quite an early age. We provide details of our incremental approach, which can be used with students of a wide range of abilities. Also, we comment on the importance of problem based learning where the algorithms are presented as possible solutions to games or puzzles. Finally, we conclude with a number of important observations with regard to the introduction of computer science into schools.

Reflecting on Computational Thinking Studies for High School Education

“…Other than using the available tools, some studies attempted to create new programming-based teaching tools [25]- [30], and game-based tools [31]- [33]. [22], [14], [17], [15], [16], [34], [18], [19], [20], [35], [36], [23], [37], [21], [24] 15 Module [38], [39], [40], [41], [42], [43], [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], In addition to teaching CT in regular classrooms, researchers have introduced afterschool activities, which called 'informal program' in this study, as an alternative to disseminate CT skills. Recently, the publication trend of studies related to infusing CT through the informal program has increased.…”

“…As [12] point out, educators should not only promote coding skills and provide knowledge, but also collaboration and teamwork skills to deal with difficult problems which are too hard to be solved individually. [52], [38], [39], [41], [22], [14], [15], [42], [18], [44], [17], [45], [19], [20], [36], [46], [23], [37], [50], [47], [21], [48], [49], [51], [24] 25 b [53], [57], [58], [59], [60], [61], [64], [55], [56], [66], [67] 11 Abstraction a [71], [22], [15], [42], [18], [44], [17], [19], [34], [46], [49], [51]…”

Developing Children’s Computational Thinking using Programming Games

“…Common smells in Scratch include duplicated code, long scripts and dead code. The refactoring process requires good programmatic and procedural abstraction skills, which primary school children should be able to learn through structured teaching (Gibson, 2012).…”

“…However, research has shown that these are not often used in projects, and when they are, they do not impact the amount of duplication in projects (Robles et al, 2017). Using custom blocks and clones requires good abstraction skills, which primary school children should be able to learn if the content is presented in a structured way (Gibson, 2012).…”

ProBots3D: Programando robots en 3D

“…Gibson menciona en (Gibson, 2012) que "enseñar a nuestros niños y jóvenes a programar para que las máquinas del futuro hagan lo que ellos quieran parece mejor idea que dejar que ocurra justo lo contrario. "…”