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Testudinata: A tangible interface for exploring functional programming

  • Kritphong Mongkhonvanit
  • , Claire Jia Yi Zau
  • , Chris Proctor
  • , Paulo Blikstein
  • Stanford University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Learning to program is difficult for most children. Most of the interfaces designed to help children experience and understand programming are based on imperative programming. However, early exposure to functional programming have been found to have many benefits over imperative programming. We describe a tangible interface, Testudinata, that helps to make a fundamental concept of functional programming - function composition - more approachable to younger learners in elementary and middle school. Using Testudinata, learners can design, implement, and test various compositions of pre-made functions on a tangible user interface (TUI), while observing and comparing results on a graphical user interface (GUI). Through the combination of a TUI and GUI, the learners will be able to gain basic understanding of of function composition in a fun and engaging way.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIDC 2018 - Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages493-496
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781450351522
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 19 2018
Event17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2018 - Trondheim, Norway
Duration: Jun 19 2018Jun 22 2018

Publication series

NameIDC 2018 - Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children

Conference

Conference17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2018
Country/TerritoryNorway
CityTrondheim
Period06/19/1806/22/18

Keywords

  • Computer science education
  • Functional programming
  • Tangible user interface

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