Programming in a Robotics Context in the Kindergarten Classroom: The Impact on Sequencing Skills

Elizabeth Kazakoff; Marina Bers

Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia Vol. 21, No. 4 (November 2012) pp. 371–391

This paper examines the impact of computer programming of robots on sequencing ability in early childhood and the relationship between sequencing skills, class size, and teacher’s comfort level and experience with technology. Fifty-eight children...

The Virtual Campus of the Future: Stimulating and Simulating Civic Actions in a Virtual World

Marina Bers; Clement Chau

Journal of Computing in Higher Education Vol. 22, No. 1 (April 2010) pp. 1–23

This paper presents a pre-orientation program for incoming college students, Active Citizenship through Technology (ACT), that engaged students in civic dialogue early in their academic experience while fostering a long-term peer support network. It ...

The TangibleK Robotics Program: Applied Computational Thinking for Young Children

Marina U. Bers

Early Childhood Research & Practice Vol. 12, No. 2 (2010)

This article describes the TangibleK robotics program for young children. Based on over a decade of research, this program is grounded on the belief that teaching children about the human-made world, the realm of technology and engineering, is as...

Computer Science Education in Early Childhood: The Case of ScratchJr

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 18, No. 1 (Jan 28, 2019) pp. 113–138

Aim/Purpose: This paper aims to explore whether having state Computer Science standards in place will increase young children’s exposure to coding and powerful ideas from computer science in the early years. Background: Computer science education in ...

Girls, Boys, and Bots: Gender Differences in Young Children’s Performance on Robotics and Programming Tasks

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 15 (Dec 27, 2015) pp. 145–165

Prior work demonstrates the importance of introducing young children to programming and engineering content before gender stereotypes are fully developed and ingrained in later years. However, very little research on gender and early childhood...

Robotic Technologies: When Parents Put Their Learning Ahead of their Child’s

Laura Beals; Marina Bers

Journal of Interactive Learning Research Vol. 17, No. 4 (October 2006) pp. 341–366

New technologies are slowly making it into the early childhood classroom; however, many families expose their children to these technologies before they encounter them in the formal school setting. Thus, many parents serve as the first teachers of...

Topics: Computers, Interaction, Children, Collaboration, Early Childhood Education, Robotics, Adults, Creativity, Learning Outcomes, Research Methods

Beyond Computer Literacy: Supporting Youth's Positive Development through Technology

Marina Umaschi Bers

New Directions for Youth Development Vol. 128 (2010) pp. 13–23

In a digital era in which technology plays a role in most aspects of a child's life, having the competence and confidence to use computers might be a necessary step, but not a goal in itself. Developing character traits that will serve children to...

Project InterActions: A Multigenerational Robotic Learning Environment

Marina U. Bers

Journal of Science Education and Technology Vol. 16, No. 6 (December 2007) pp. 537–552

This paper presents Project InterActions, a series of 5-week workshops in which very young learners (4- to 7-year-old children) and their parents come together to build and program a personally meaningful robotic project in the context of a...

The Role of New Technologies to Foster Positive Youth Development

Marina Umaschi Bers

Applied Developmental Science Vol. 10, No. 4 (2006) pp. 200–219

This article describes a developmental systems approach to applied developmental science (ADS), which provides a framework to design and evaluate technology-rich programs that promote positive development by emphasizing the strengths and assets of...

Evaluating Participation in an International Bilingual Virtual World Educational Intervention for Youth

Laura Beals; Marina Bers

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research Vol. 2, No. 5 (Jun 11, 2010)

This paper reports on an evaluation of participation in a complex, international, bilingual project called ClubZora. ClubZora was an eleven-month educational intervention in which the Zora virtual world was introduced to an international after...

The Impact of Teacher Gender on Girls’ Performance on Programming Tasks in Early Elementary School

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 17, No. 1 (Feb 05, 2018) pp. 153–162

Aim/Purpose: The goal of this paper is to examine whether having female robotics teachers positively impacts girls’ performance on programming and robotics tasks Background: Women continue to be underrepresented in the technical STEM fields such as...

VEX Robotics Competitions: Gender Differences in Student Attitudes and Experiences

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Research Vol. 18, No. 1 (Jan 22, 2019) pp. 97–112

Aim/Purpose: Educational robotics competitions are a popular way to increase students’ interest in science and engineering during their K-12 years. However, female students are typically underrepresented in these competitions. The goal of this study ...

Gender Differences in Kindergarteners' Robotics and Programming Achievement

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Umaschi Bers

International Journal of Technology and Design Education Vol. 23, No. 3 (August 2013) pp. 691–702

Early childhood is a critical period for introducing girls to traditionally masculine fields of science and technology before more extreme gender stereotypes surface in later years. This study looks at the TangibleK Robotics Program in order to...

Girls, Boys, and Bots: Gender Differences in Young Children?s Performance on Robotics and Programming Tasks

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Umashi Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 15, No. 1 (Dec 27, 2015) pp. 145–165

Prior work demonstrates the importance of introducing young children to programming and engineering content before gender stereotypes are fully developed and ingrained in later years. However, very little research on gender and early childhood...

Teaching Partnerships: Early Childhood and Engineering Students Teaching Math and Science through Robotics

Marina U. Bers; Merredith Portsmore

Journal of Science Education and Technology Vol. 14, No. 1 (March 2005) pp. 59–73

This paper presents an innovative approach to introducing pre-service early childhood teachers to math, science and technology education. The approach involves the creation of partnerships between pre-service early childhood and engineering students ...

Promoting Positive Technological Development in a Kindergarten Makerspace: A Qualitative Case Study

Amanda Strawhacker; Marina Umaschi Bers

European Journal of STEM Education Vol. 3, No. 3 (2018)

As education communities grow more interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), schools have integrated more technology and engineering opportunities into their curricula. Makerspaces for all ages have emerged as a way to...

"I Want My Robot to Look for Food": Comparing Kindergartner's Programming Comprehension Using Tangible, Graphic, and Hybrid User Interfaces

Amanda Strawhacker; Marina U. Bers

International Journal of Technology and Design Education Vol. 25, No. 3 (August 2015) pp. 293–319

In recent years, educational robotics has become an increasingly popular research area. However, limited studies have focused on differentiated learning outcomes based on type of programming interface. This study aims to explore how successfully...

The Impact of User Interface on Young Children’s Computational Thinking

Amanda Sullivan; Marina Bers; Alex Pugnali

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 16 (Jan 09, 2017) pp. 171–193

Aim/Purpose: Over the past few years, new approaches to introducing young children to computational thinking have grown in popularity. This paper examines the role that user interfaces have on children\u2019s mastery of computational thinking...

Implementing a Robotics Curriculum in an Early Childhood Montessori Classroom

Mollie Elkin; Amanda Sullivan; Marina Umashi Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 13, No. 1 (2014) pp. 153–169

Ready for Robotics:Bringing together the T and E of STEM in early childhood teacher education

Marina Bers; Safoura Seddighin; Amanda Sullivan

Journal of Technology and Teacher Education Vol. 21, No. 3 (July 2013) pp. 355–377

Prior work has shown that early childhood educators demonstrate a lack of knowledge and understanding about technology and engineering, and about developmentally appropriate pedagogical approaches to bring those disciplines into the classrooms. This ...

Let's Dance the "Robot Hokey-Pokey!": Children's Programming Approaches and Achievement throughout Early Cognitive Development

Louise P. Flannery; Marina Umaschi Bers

Journal of Research on Technology in Education Vol. 46, No. 1 (2013) pp. 81–101

Young learners today generate, express, and interact with sophisticated ideas using a range of digital tools to explore interactive stories, animations, computer games, and robotics. In recent years, new developmentally appropriate robotics kits...

If You Can Program, You Can Write: Learning Introductory Programming Across Literacy Levels

Ziva Hassenfeld; Marina Bers; Laura De Ruiter; Madhu Govind

Journal of Information Technology Education: Research Vol. 19, No. 1 (Jan 28, 2020) pp. 65–85

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents findings on a curricular intervention aimed at integrating computer programming with reading and writing in early elementary school. The purpose of this research was to explore the relation between students’ varying...

The Wheels on the Bot go Round and Round: Robotics Curriculum in Pre-Kindergarten

Amanda Sullivan; Elizabeth R. Kazakoff; Marina Umashi Bers

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan 01, 2013) pp. 203–219

Collaboration by Design: Using Robotics to Foster Social Interaction in Kindergarten

Kenneth T. H. Lee; Amanda Sullivan; Marina U. Bers

Computers in the Schools Vol. 30, No. 3 (2013) pp. 271–281

Research shows the importance of social interaction between peers in child development. Although technology can foster peer interactions, teachers often struggle with teaching with technology. This study examined a sample of (n = 19) children...

Enhancing Children's Interest and Knowledge in Bioengineering through an Interactive Videogame

Amanda Strawhacker; Marina Bers; Clarissa Verish; Amanda Sullivan; Orit Shaer

Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice Vol. 17, No. 1 (Feb 05, 2018) pp. 55–81

Aim/Purpose: Bioengineering is a burgeoning interdisciplinary learning domain that could inspire the imaginations of elementary aged children but is not traditionally taught to this age group for reasons unrelated to student ability. This pilot...

Computational thinking and tinkering: Exploration of an early childhood robotics curriculum

Marina Umaschi Bers; Louise Flannery; Elizabeth R. Kazakoff; Amanda Sullivan

Computers & Education Vol. 72, No. 1 (March 2014) pp. 145–157

By engaging in construction-based robotics activities, children as young as four can play to learn a range of concepts. The TangibleK Robotics Program paired developmentally appropriate computer programming and robotics tools with a constructionist...

Language: English

Coding as a playground: Promoting positive learning experiences in childhood classrooms

Marina U. Bers; Carina González-González; Mª Belén Armas–Torres

Computers & Education Vol. 138, No. 1 (September 2019) pp. 130–145

In recent years, there has been a push to introduce coding and computational thinking in early childhood education, and robotics is an excellent tool to achieve this. However, the integration of these fundamental skills into formal and official...

Language: English

Teachers as Designers: Integrating Robotics in Early Childhood Education

Marina U. Bers; Iris Ponte; Catherine Juelich; Alison Viera; Jonathan Schenker

Information Technology in Childhood Education Annual Vol. 2002, No. 1 (2002) pp. 123–145

This article presents a constructionist approach to introducing technology, in particular robotics, in the early childhood classroom. The authors demonstrate how this approach is well suited, since the four basic tenets of constructionism have a...

Topics: Learning Objects, Integration, Robotics, Early Childhood Education, Classrooms