Browsing by Author "Hämäläinen, Eero"

The importance of programming and robotics in society is growing continuously, so it is useful for us as technology users to understand its impact on our lives. For this reason, it is important that already in primary school a good foundation for the 21st century skills is created, which include critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, collaboration skills, accessing and analyzing information, self-learning, curiosity and the use of imagination. Programming and robotics became part of the national core curriculum for basic education in 2016. Ac-cording to previous studies, robotics in education increase e.g. self-directivity, initiative, thinking skills, innovativeness, and technology engagement. When working with a robot, a student is in the role of a participant in accordance with the constructivist learning theory. For a novice programmer, a visual programming language is particularly well suited because the student's attention is focused on programming logic and problem solving instead of syntax. In this study the performance of elementary school fifth and sixth graders is examined in Lego robot programming tasks that become gradually more difficult. In addition, we want to know how the students found a solution to the tasks. A total of 23 fifth and sixth graders participated in the study. The students were given six programming tasks, which they performed in pairs. The students used visual programming language and Lego Mindstorms robots. The tasks involved moving the robot, and in the most demanding tasks also sensors, loop, and conditional expression were needed. The data collection was done by saving students’ programs, with a questionnaire, and with video recordings. The analytical method used was qualitative content analysis. The study showed that the students learned well the skills needed to move the robot. Instead, the use of loop and conditional expression produced difficulties. The sixth graders outperformed the fifth graders, although they also had more experience in robotics. Students solved tasks most often in co-operation with their partner, which supports previous observations of the usefulness of pair programming. Instead, internet was not used to find a solution, and the students were not provided with ready-made internet sources. This inspired the idea of the necessity of the sources sought beforehand.