Adviser: Professor David Uttal
Subject: Social Sciences
DOI: 10.21985/n2-3vg6-5v28
Maya is a recent graduate of Northwestern and received her Bachelor’s in Neuroscience and Global Health in June 2021. She has been working in the Project on Children’s Thinking Lab since her freshman year, where she has assisted in multiple studies. She has a particular interest in interactions between parents and their children.
Anjelique Bomar is a senior at Northwestern University majoring in Learning Sciences and minoring in Psychology. She is currently and has been a part of student clubs and dorms’ executive boards. She loves building community and bringing people together and is currently doing that on B. Burlesque’s executive board. She also enjoys doing research in the Project on Children’s Thinking Cognitive Psychology lab. She wants to work with children in out-of-school opportunities and has been excited by connecting with students and families through the lab’s various studies that focus on computational thinking skills, mental rotation, as well as communication between students and their parents. After graduation she will be working at an education non-profit in Evanston called MetroSquash where she will be the Academic Coordinator for middle school students.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″ text_font=”Standard2|600|||||||” text_font_size=”25px”]Abstract[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″ text_font=”Times New Roman||||||||” text_font_size=”19px” text_line_height=”1.5em”]Codable robots, small electronic devices programmed with software or apps, have become popular toys for children to play with at home. During play, children learn about coding by programming their robot to move and behave however they choose. But given the novelty of coding, children may face impasses when coding their robot to behave in these desired ways. In these moments, they turn to social partners for assistance – and in the home that’s often parents. Although parents are critical learning partners, they may have little prior knowledge about coding. Therefore, this study examines how parents help their children overcome coding challenges during codable robot play. We delivered codable robots to families’ homes in the Chicago area. Over a Zoom session, we provided parents and children with a brief tutorial and facilitated their participation in a playful computational activity with the robot. During these sessions we took field notes documenting moments when children faced challenges in coding their robot to behave in desired ways. We have conducted qualitative Interaction Analysis on several of these moments. Initial findings suggest that parents support their children in accomplishing their coding goals by demonstrating strategies that involve physically moving their bodies and using objects from the home. These strategies provide an accessible way for parents and children to understand their code and achieve their goals for their robot’s behaviors even if both partners have limited prior coding knowledge. Ultimately, these strategies support children’s learning, keep their play positive, and motivates children to keep exploring code.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.23.3″][/et_pb_code][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.23.3″][/et_pb_code][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
