Putting Computing on the Table: Using Physical Games to Teach Computer Science

We describe a new introductory CS curriculum for middle schools that focuses on teaching CS concepts using the instructions and rules for playing simple, physical games. We deliberately avoid the use of technology and, in particular, programming, and we focus on games, such as tossing a coin to see who goes first and playing Tic-Tac-Toe. We report on middle-school students' understanding of basic CS concepts and their experiences with the curriculum. After piloting the curriculum in 6th and 7th grade electives, we found that students liked the curriculum and using games, while some other students reported struggling with the technical content in the algorithm unit and vocabulary across the curriculum. Overall, students gained an understanding of abstraction and representation, and most students could define an algorithm and recognize a condition. However, they could not correctly organize the instructions of an algorithm. Our results suggest that the non-coding, game-based curriculum engaged middle school students in basic CS concepts at the middle school level, but we believe there is room for improvement in delivering technical content and vocabulary related to algorithms.