Presented by: James Lockwood
We have found when teaching Computer Science concepts that the use of puzzles and games can be very effective. These provide an opportunity to develop team-work and computational thinking skills as well as introducing them to different Computer Science concepts.
We will demonstrate several different games and puzzles which can be used to teach secondary school aged students (some may be adaptable to primary level). These will include Bebras problems, teaching programming concepts through making a board/card game, logic puzzle games and a cryptography treasure hunt.
Presenter Biography:
I am a postgraduate student in the Computer Science Department at Maynooth University. My research involves developing a curriculum to teach Computational Thinking skills through Computer Science to transition years. The hope is that it will teach them new concepts, programming, improve their understanding and attitude towards Computer Science as well as improve their Computational Thinking skills.