research-article

Scalable game design and the development of a checklist for getting computational thinking into public schools

Authors:

Alexander Repenning,

Andri IoannidouAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '10: Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

Pages 265 - 269

https://doi.org/10.1145/1734263.1734357

Published: 10 March 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Game design appears to be a promising approach to interest K-12 students in Computer Science. Unfortunately, balancing motivational and educational concerns is truly challenging. Over a number of years, we have explored how to achieve a functional balance by creating a curriculum that combines increasingly complex game designs, computational thinking patterns and authoring tools. Scalable Game Design is a research project exploring new strategies of how to scale up from after school and summer programs into required curriculum of public schools through game design approaches. The project includes inner city schools, remote rural areas and Native American communities. A requirement checklist of computational thinking tools regarding curriculum, teacher training, standards and authoring tools has been developed and is being tested with thousands of students.

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Cited By

Mercan GSelçuk Z(2025)Teaching Machine Learning Through Educational RoboticsEffective Computer Science Education in K-12 Classrooms10.4018/979-8-3693-4542-9.ch011(293-318)Online publication date: 24-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-4542-9.ch011
Wu SSu Y(2025)The effect of learning computational thinking skills through educational board games on students’ cognitive styles, cognitive behaviors, and learning effectivenessAsia Pacific Education Review10.1007/s12564-024-10031-0Online publication date: 20-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-024-10031-0
Ezeamuzie NEzeamuzie M(2024)Multidimensional Framing of Environments Beyond Blocks and Texts in K–12 ProgrammingReview of Educational Research10.3102/00346543231216958Online publication date: 3-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543231216958
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Index Terms

Scalable game design and the development of a checklist for getting computational thinking into public schools
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '10: Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

March 2010

618 pages

ISBN:9781450300063

DOI:10.1145/1734263

General Chairs:
Gary Lewandowski
Xavier University
,
Steven Wolfman
University of British Columbia
,
Program Chairs:
Thomas J. Cortina
Carnegie Mellon University
,
Ellen L. Walker
Hiram College

Copyright © 2010 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 10 March 2010

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SIGCSE10: The 41st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 10 - 13, 2010

Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA

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Cited By

Mercan GSelçuk Z(2025)Teaching Machine Learning Through Educational RoboticsEffective Computer Science Education in K-12 Classrooms10.4018/979-8-3693-4542-9.ch011(293-318)Online publication date: 24-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-4542-9.ch011
Wu SSu Y(2025)The effect of learning computational thinking skills through educational board games on students’ cognitive styles, cognitive behaviors, and learning effectivenessAsia Pacific Education Review10.1007/s12564-024-10031-0Online publication date: 20-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-024-10031-0
Ezeamuzie NEzeamuzie M(2024)Multidimensional Framing of Environments Beyond Blocks and Texts in K–12 ProgrammingReview of Educational Research10.3102/00346543231216958Online publication date: 3-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543231216958
Reynolds RLeeder C(2024)Information Uses and Learning Outcomes During Guided Discovery in a Blended E-Learning Game Design Program for Secondary Computer Science EducationSSRN Electronic Journal10.2139/ssrn.4718944Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4718944
Farris AMcLaughlin G(2024)Getting a grip on how we talk about computational practices in science in settings of teacher learningJournal of Computer Assisted Learning10.1111/jcal.1297640:4(1922-1940)Online publication date: 2-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12976
Fuchs WMcDonald AGautam AKazerouni A(2024)Recommendations for Improving End-User Programming Education: A Case Study with Undergraduate Chemistry StudentsJournal of Chemical Education10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00219101:8(3085-3096)Online publication date: 5-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00219
Metin ŞBaşaran MSeheryeli MRelkin EKalyenci D(2024)Adaptation of the Computational Thinking Skills Assessment Tool (TechCheck-K) in Early ChildhoodJournal of Science Education and Technology10.1007/s10956-023-10089-233:3(365-382)Online publication date: 2-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-023-10089-2
Cafarella LVasconcelos L(2024)Computational thinking with game design: An action research study with middle school studentsEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-024-13010-5Online publication date: 17-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-13010-5
Villalustre LCueli M(2023)Assessing the Computational Thinking of Pre-Service Teachers: A Gender and Robotics Programming Experience AnalysisEducation Sciences10.3390/educsci1310103213:10(1032)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13101032
Karalekas GVologiannidis SKalomiros J(2023)Teaching Machine Learning in K–12 Using RoboticsEducation Sciences10.3390/educsci1301006713:1(67)Online publication date: 10-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13010067
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