Page 26 - ParentsWorld June 2020

systematically hoMe activitieS to deveLoP
developing a
solution that can be coMPutationaL thinKing
coded as software • Parents and children cooperate to arrange books
for computers in the home library in a sequenced order by author or
to implement — subject titles.
necessitates teaching • Looping can be taught by teaching sequenced
children four core key activities that children can frequently use in everyday
skills: activities.
• Ensure children pack their own school or travel bags.
decoMPoSition. This teaches prioritisation and space optimisation.
This requires breaking • Encourage children to use map navigation when a
down a problem into parent is driving. This develops goal achievement and
simple and easily concentration skills.
manageable parts. • Pattern recognition capability is developed by
For instance Arav, a playing building blocks, Lego, jigsaw puzzles, Crack the
Aditya Vasista class VII student, has Code or IQ Twist-Smart games.
to complete a school • Encourage children to write musical programs and/
science project. Using decomposition, he breaks the problem or skits using SCRATCH software for presentation on
into small sections, and writes down the resources required grandparents’ birthdays/other family events.
for each section which are integrated to create a model/ Here are some highly recommended app-based
prototype. games and hands-on activities to build children’s
computational thinking capabilities:
ProbLeM recognition. This requires ideation about the App-based games
common factors of parts of a problem and using precedents • Trainyard
to find solutions. Continuing with Arav’s case history, he • Move the block
lists previously faced challenges such as time management, • Move the turtle
procuring resources and transporting the science model to • Inventions
school without damage. Hands-on activities
Abstraction. This is about focusing on vital details of a • Lego Mindstorms
task and ignoring trivial and unimportant facts. • Kit for Arduino
Arav systematically lists the ways and means to best • Snap Circuits
address the problem and presents the most workable
solutions. He sources all materials needed to create the after-school‘CT study circle’ conducted by Sudarshan,
prototype within the given time frame and draws a flow concurs. “CT classes are interesting and thought-provoking.
chart to smoothly implement the Recently we did a physics simulation
problem resolution programme. activity on gravity and velocity using
Algorithmic thinking. This requires Scratch programming and discovered
specifying a series of steps to solve a that there are many different ways to
problem. find solutions. In fact, CT learning
Arav now collects all materials and has helped me immensely in my non-
systematicallyworks to build the academic activities. I now play football
prototype. better because I use logical reasoning to
“Developing computational thinking ideate better play strategies,” says Aditya.
skills from early age develops children’s Ram Venkatraman, a
vital skills of logical reasoning and cybersecurity specialist and father of two
problem solving. Development of these children, advises parents to introduce
skills will enable children to become Sudarshan R. computational thinking without using
knowledge creators and innovators, who digital devices. “Getting children to
will find solutions to some of the world’s solve jigsaw and Lego puzzles and even
most pressing problems,” says Sudarshan R, national playing sudoku enables them to use deductive logic. Jigsaw
coordinator of the Advanced Learning Centres, Education puzzles are especially useful to develop computational
for the Gifted and Talented, National Institute of Advanced thinking — reequiring sorting to building parts of the whole,
Studies (NIAS), Bangalore. and finally assembling completed parts to complete the
Eleven-year-old Aditya Vasista, who is enroled in an whole as one image,” says Venkatraman.

parentsworld • june 2020 27