Presentation from ALICT summer school in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, July 30th 2014, sponsored by Slovene Scholarship Fund EEA/NFM.

1. Activities to Encourage
Algorithmic Thinking in
Computer Science
Ines Medved, Barbara Stopar, Katja Zupančič,
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education
July 2014

2. Introduction
• The definition of algorithmic thinking
• Computer science unplugged
• The Bebras
• Didactic computer/video games
• Visual programming environment SCRATCH
• The problem of grading products made
in/with activities

3. The Definition of
Algorithmic Thinking
• Abilities:
– Analyze
– Specify
– Find
– Construct
– Think
– Evaluate
– Improve
• Human cognitive
factors:
– Abstract and logical
thinking
– Thinking in
structures
– Creativity
– Problem solving
competence

4. The Definition of
Algorithmic Thinking
• Different from natural thinking
• Solution for a machine

5. Algorithmic Thinking
• Problems:
– Abstract type of thinking
– Abstraction
– Programming environment
For the beginners the complexity should be reduced
to that level where the concepts of algorithmic
thinking can be learned in a natural way.

6. Algorithmic Thinking
Real worldProgramming
environment

7. Computer Science Unplugged
• English version:
– A collection of free learning activities
– Concepts: binary numbers, algorithms and data compression
– Suitable for people of all ages
• http://csunplugged.org/
• Slovenian version:
– Translated and adapted by dr. Janez Demšar and mag. Irena
Demšar
– Beside original CS Unplugged material they added some
activities from other similar sites and their own games
• http://vidra.fri.uni-lj.si/aktivnosti

8. The Bebras
• An international contest on informatics and
computer fluency
• Easily accessible and highly motivating online
contests
• Sets of short
questions called
Bebras tasks
• “Beaver” = hard-working, intelligent, lively
animal

9. The Bebras
• Prof. Valentina Dagiene, University of Vilnius
• First organized in Lithuania in 2004
• In 2012: the non-school activity in Informatics
education with the largest audience
• First in Slovenia: in the 2011/12 school year

10. The Bebras Task
To solve Bebras tasks:
• Required to think in and
about information
• Discrete structures
• Computation
• Data processing
• Algorithmic concepts
• 45-55 minutes for solving
18-20 problems
• Different task sets for
different age students
A good Bebras task should be:
• Representing informatics
concepts
• Easily understandable
• Solved within 3 minutes
• Short
• Solvable on computer
• Independent from specific
systems
• Interesting and/or funny
• Includes pictures

11. The Bebras Task
• Chosen every year at an international Bebras
workshop
• The tasks suggested are then analyzed,
improved and sorted based on their difficulty,
theme and age category
• They pick out the best which become
mandatory -> comparison on
the international level

12. 2012-AT-10 (Trendy Cycles in Beaver Town)
Nowadays everyone in Beaver Town wants to
have a trendy colorful bicycle. But the police has
set up a regulation, how bicycles are allowed to
look like.
You can derive from a so called tree depicted in
the figure below, whether or not a bicycle fulfils
the specification of the police. Beginning from
the starting point (the so called root) the
beavers have to decide step-by-step, which of
the available options (branches) they prefer.

13. Which of the following bicycles does not fulfill the
specification?
a) b)
c) d)

14. 2010-CZ-02 Four Frogs
A magician robot moves across a square grid according to
given commands. The commands are expressed by the
following symbols:
- robot goes forward one step.
- robot creates a frog in front of it
- the robot repeats 4 times: one step forward. As a
result the robot moves 4 steps forward
- the robot repeats four times: move one step
forward and move one step forward. As a result the robot
moves 8 steps forward.

15. Which program tells the robot to create four
frogs in a row next to each other?
A)
B)
C)
D)

17. Serious Games
• Computer is used just for information
transmission or absorption
• Importance of learning goals related to
curriculum
• Essential elements: play, pretending, goal and
rules
• Different type of knowledge requires different
type of game design techniques and game
mechanics

18. eAdventure
• Is a research project aiming to facilitate the
integration of educational games and game-
like simulations in educational processes
• Developed by the e-UCM e-learning research
group at Universidad Complutense de Madrid
• Games design by students at Faculty of
Education, University of Ljubljana:
– http://hrast.pef.uni-lj.si/igre/

19. Scratch
• Visual programming language
• Creating:
– Animations
– Computer games
– Interactive stories
• Colored graphic
blocks with programming
commands

20. Scratch
• Users can learn:
– Assignment statement
(variable)
– Loop
– Conditional statement
– Response to the event
– Time synchronization
– Random numbers
– Logical operations
– …
• Users can’t learn:
– Define their own classes
and objects
– Reading from a file
– Writing to a file
– Writing comments

21. Scratch

22. Problem of Grading
Products Made in/with Activities
• We need to evaluate the usage of
knowledge/theory.
• Understanding of basic computer usage.
• The quality of the executed presentation of
the product.
• The attention paid to the data coding
• Effectiveness of the usage of IT
• Most importantly, the criterion must be
prepared in advance

23. Workshop
Do a game/storytelling in Scratch. Your options
are:
• Ping pong
• Introduce yourself
http://scratch.mit.edu/
http://scratch.mit.edu/scratch2download/

24. References
• ACM Tekmovanja – Bober, available http://tekmovanja.acm.si/bober (31.8.2013)
• Adams, E. Fundamentals of game design, Third edition. Barkeley: New Riders, 2014.
• Bebras, available http://www.bebras.org/ (23.7.2014)
• Bell, T. et al. Computer Science Unplugged, available http://csunplugged.org/ (16.3.2013)
• Bell, T. et al. Računalništvo brez računalnika, 2012, available
http://csunplugged.org/sites/default/files/books/CS_Unplugged-Slovenian_Dec2012.pdf (31.8.2013)
• Cerar, Š. and Rugelj, J. Bober – mednarodno tekmovanje v informacijski in računalniški pismenosti. V:
Mednarodna multikonferenca Splet izobraževanja in raziskovanja z IKT - SIRikt 2012. (2012). Ljubljana:
Miška, d.o.o.: 1078 – 1085, available http://prispevki.sirikt.si/datoteke/zbornik_sirikt2012.pdf (16.3.2013)
• Demšar, J. Zbirka nalog Bober. Internal material, 2013.
• Futschek, G. and Moschitz, J. Developing Algorithmic Thinking by Inventing and Playing Algorithms. Paris,
2010, available http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_187461.pdf (24.7.2014)
• Kapp, K. M. The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: game-based methods and strategies for training
and education. San Francisco: Pfeiffer, 2012.
• Shaffer, D. W. How computer games help children learn. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
• Učni načrt. Izbirni predmet: program osnovnošolskega izobraževanja. Računalništvo, Ljubljana: Ministrstvo
za šolstvo, znanost in šport: Zavod RD za šolstvo, 2002, available
http://www.mizs.gov.si/fileadmin/mizs.gov.si/pageuploads/podrocje/os/devetletka/predmeti_izbirni/Racu
nalnistvo_izbirni.pdf (28.7.2014)
• Whitton, N and Moseley, A. Using games to enhance learning and teaching. New York; London: Roufledge,
2012.