Development and Evaluation of a Physical Computing Game-Design Project for Students' Computational Thinking

This study developed a physical computing game-design project that incorporates block-based programming, physical computing, and computer game design for Taiwan's high school technology education curriculum to strengthen students' computational thinking. The project asked students to develop a somatosensory computer game using a block-based programming language and physical computing devices. This study also attempted to enhance students' attitudes toward programming, technology, and engineering, and to explore the effectiveness differences between students with different majors. The research findings indicate that the project may improve students' computational thinking concepts, but did not improve students' attitudes toward programming, technology, and engineering. While participating science major students' perceptions and attitudes toward technology and engineering were significantly higher than those of social science majors, this study also found that students' performance on their project product showed no significant difference between the different groups of majors. These results imply that the application of this project could be feasible and may be beneficial to deepen science majors' interest in technology and engineering.