Computational Expression in Early Childhood: Creative Computational Thinking in Pre-K-Second Grade

Purpose & objective

Purpose:
- Introduce PreK-2nd grade educators to developmentally-appropriate robotics and coding platforms
- Demonstrate robotics and coding activities proven to support students’ learning and play with computational thinking concepts at a level fitting their early stages of development
- Promote the benefit of incorporating STEAM, technology, and robotics across multiple subjects as an effective way to support diverse student self-expression and communication
- Share evidence-based recommendations and resources to guide decisions about how to select developmentally-appropriate coding tools and activities for PreK-2 learning settings.

Objectives:
- Participants will be able to incorporate coding and robotics into their existing PreK-2nd grade curricula/activities through interdisciplinary STEAM projects.
- Participants will learn how to effectively engage students in playful self-expression and idea-sharing through creative coding projects that incorporate music, dance, and performing arts
- Participants will learn about proven models of STEAM education and pedagogy to support computational thinking and computational expression in their PreK-2nd grade learners.
- Participants will be able to identify which features of educational robots and coding activities are most developmentally-appropriate for early childhood

Outline

The outline of this session will comprise of the following:

(1) 20-minute lecture presentation
- 5-minute Intro: Welcome, introduce core ideas of session and get to know the presenters
- 15-minute presentation by Tufts’ Developmental Technologies Research Group
-- Discuss computational thinking, how to recognize it in young children’s play, and how it can support children’s STEAM learning
-- Highlight Computational Thinking book from DevTech, and specifically share findings from Introduction, Computational Expression chapter, and Learning Analytics chapter, including evidence-based trends in children's use of technologies and associated pedagogical frameworks and constructs.
-- Share examples from research studies of ways that children can engage in holistic self-expression and communication skills through robotic and coding activities that incorporate music, dance, and performing and visual arts.
-- Discuss the process of creating artistic and expressive STEAM activities and incorporating them into a larger curriculum seamlessly.
-- Share strategies for incorporating a range of disciplinary domains (e.g. arts and culture, civics, social studies) into STEAM explorations with PreK-2nd grade students.
(2) 25-minute hands-on activities: Attendees will have the opportunity to try out two robotics/coding platforms at different stations.
- KIBO Station:
-- Overview of KIBO robot, highlighting its developmentally appropriate screen-free design, and demonstrating how to build and program a simple robot.
-- Hands-on KIBO play to explore visual arts, crafting, dance, and movement activities
- ScratchJr Station:
-- Overview of ScratchJr application, highlighting its playful text-free visual interface, and demonstrating how to program a simple animation or story.
-- Hands-on ScratchJr play to explore animation, music, and storytelling activities.
(3) 15-minute Q&A, resource share, and raffle giveaway of books.
- Attendees will share their experience with the coding activity stations, provide feedback on the activities, and ask any questions they may have
- Audience members will have a chance to win limited copies of the Computational Thinking book explored throughout the session, including chapters on other ways to incorporate computational thinking in early childhood settings (e.g. no-tech/unplugged, assessments, etc.).

Supporting research

- Bers, M. (Ed.). (2021). Teaching Computational Thinking and Coding to Young Children. IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-7308-2
- Sullivan, A., & Strawhacker, A. (2021). Screen-Free STEAM: Low-Cost and Hands-on Approaches to Teaching Coding and Engineering to Young Children. In S. Garvis & C. Cohrssen (Eds.), Embedding STEAM in Early Childhood Education and Care (pp. 87-113). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
- Sullivan, A A. (2019) Breaking the STEM Stereotype: Reaching Girls in Early Childhood. Rowman & LIttlefield.
- Bers, M.U. (2018). Coding as a Playground - Programming and Computational Thinking in the Early Childhood Classroom. Routledge.
- Sullivan, A., Strawhacker, A., & Bers, M.U. (2017). Dancing, drawing, and dramatic robots: Integrating robotics and the arts to teach foundational STEAM concepts to young children. In Khine, M.S. (Ed.) Robotics in STEM Education: Redesigning the Learning Experience. (pp. 231-260). Springer Publishing.
- Kazakoff, E.R. & Bers, M.U. (2014). Put your robot in, Put your robot out: Sequencing through programming robots in early childhood. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 50(4).
- Kazakoff, E., Sullivan, A., & Bers, M.U. (2013). The effect of a classroom-based intensive robotics and programming workshop on sequencing ability in early childhood. Early Childhood Education Journal, 41(4), 245-255.
- Pugnali, A., Sullivan, A., & Bers, M.U. (2017) The Impact of User Interface on Young Children’s Computational Thinking. Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice, 16, 172- 193.
- Elkin, M., Sullivan, A., & Bers, M.U. (2016). Programming with the KIBO Robotics Kit in Preschool Classrooms. Computers in the Schools, 33:3, 169-186.
- Sullivan, A., & Bers, M.U. (2015). Robotics in the early childhood classroom: Learning outcomes from an 8-week robotics curriculum in pre-kindergarten through second grade. International Journal of Technology and Design Education. Online First.