Build Bridges between Conversation, Story, Visual Programming, and Text-based Programming in K-8 Education

Abstract

In this paper, we create a learning path and curate projects that let students learn certain computational concepts in a consistent way that bridges story, conversation, visual programming, and text-based programming. Our approach is to provide young children with both visual and text-based programming materials that are directly associated with the computational logic in some selected children’s daily dialogues and stories. We demonstrate this combo-design idea with examples of roleplaying, Snap! program, and Python code. Our design pattern and examples could be adapted to other suitable children’s activities in different school settings on a variety of technology platforms.