Experimental Functionality Development for Scratch Mathematical and Statistics Extensions

Computer science education is to teach students to solve problems, design systems, provoke creativity, and explore their own interest by using basic concepts of computer science. From science to the humanities, mathematics and logical thinking ability also affect every aspect of computer science education. To foster mathematics logical thinking and problem-solving ability in primary and secondary schools, students not only require to learn to read, writing, and arithmetic, but also need to understand the abstraction of mathematics operations and logical thinking processes. Therefore, this study uses visual programming language as a basis, i.e. Scratch 2.0 offline edition, to introduce abstraction of mathematics operations. Scratch 2.0 can empower learners using graphical elements to solve mathematics problems with a smooth learning curve through user-friendly programming interface. However, the latest version of Scratch 2.0 does not include enough functions for abstracting mathematical blocks. Consequently, this study integrates Scratch programming environment with math library of Python language to expand functionality and improve usability of Scratch. Moreover, learners are expected to learn and practice more about mathematical thinking through those additional Scratch building blocks.