Enhancing Computational Thinking through Interdisciplinary STEAM Activities Using Tablets

Ľubomíra Valovičová, Ján Ondruška, Ľubomír Zelenický, Vlastimil Chytrý and Janka Medová
Additional contact information
Ľubomíra Valovičová: Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Tr. A. Hlinku 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
Ján Ondruška: Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Tr. A. Hlinku 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
Ľubomír Zelenický: Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Tr. A. Hlinku 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
Vlastimil Chytrý: Department of Preschool and Primary Education, Faculty of Education, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, 400 01 Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic
Janka Medová: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Tr. A. Hlinku 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia

Mathematics, 2020, vol. 8, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: Computational thinking is a highly appreciated skill by mathematicians. It was forecasted that, in the next few years, half of the jobs in science, mathematics, technology and engineering (abbreviated as STEM, including arts as STEAM) will use some kind of computation. It is therefore necessary to enhance the learning of mathematics by collaborative problem-solving activities focused on both learning mathematics and developing computational thinking. The problems in science offer a reasonable context in which to investigate the common overarching concepts (e.g., measuring the length). An interdisciplinary STEAM collaborative problem-solving activity was designed and piloted with 27 lower secondary students aged 13.07 ± 1.21 years. Different levels of willingness to use the technology were observed and the factors influencing it were identified. We found that strong background knowledge implies high demands when controlling the used device. On the other hand, when a nice and user-friendly application was used, students did not need to perceive any control over it. After the intervention, the students’ views on the tablet changed and they reported more STEAM-related functions of the device.

Keywords: computational thinking; STEAM education; leisure-time education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/8/12/2128/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/8/12/2128/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:8:y:2020:i:12:p:2128-:d:452470

Access Statistics for this article

Mathematics is currently edited by Ms. Emma He

More articles in Mathematics from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().