Computational Thinking and Solving Problems – an experience with Arduino in a Electronic Engineering Career

Abstract

Computational thinking is a fundamental skill since it helps to improve analytical ability. Computational thinking involves solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior, by drawing on the fundamentals of computer science. Literature has shown different ways to bring to classroom computational thinking. Most of the experiences are related to programming classes with different kind of software according to the age. This paper present and exploratory study that describes our experience related to the first programming course at the University level for teaching computational thinking for solving problems. The use of Arduino to teach computational thinking has been incorporated into the Electronic Engineering degree at the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa since 2017. Students program components oriented to solve problems related to their profession. The first results have shown the effectiveness in the use of Arduino to develop computational thinking. This first experience gave us the foundation to expand our research to analyze quantitative data regarding to student outcomes about solving problems. We believe that our experience can be replicated not only in other Electronic Engineering careers, but in any engineering that have programming courses. We also believe that our experience could be replicated at a high school level.