Applying LEGO Mindstorms in Senior High School Students’ Programming Design Course：An Action Research Study

• Main Authors: Shih-Lung Huang, 黃世隆
• Other Authors: Cheng-Chih, Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/78936952062346144770

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 資訊教育學系在職進修碩士班 === 93 === The study used LEGOMindstorms as learning tool to enhance students’ interests and achievements in learning programming. Seventy-nine 10th grade students participated in this course. The programming concepts taught in this study are sequential structure (variables and expression), conditional structure, functions, and loop structures. To enhance students’ understanding of each concept, two stages of activities-demo and practice were implemented in each unit instruction. Students first verified these concepts by inspecting and practicing each assignment. Then they had to combine and organize these concepts to finish their final projects. Action research method was used to investigate students’ feedback and help the instructor (i.e. the researcher) adjust teaching processes and strategies. Collected and analyzed data included questionnaires, exam results, class observations, focus group interviews and instructor’s journals. The findings revealed that using LEGOMindtorms in programming learning was helpful in promoting students’ motivation and achievements. However, students felt difficult in how to use instructions to drive the LEGOMindtorms hardware. It was found that sufficient practice time, more equipment and the instructor’s help were needed for students in LEGOMindtorms programming. In addition, experience in using LEGOMindtorms to teach programming helped the instructor better understand how to improve programming teaching by using various methods.