BLC18

In 2006, Jeannette Wing said, “To reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational
thinking to every child’s analytical ability.” Twelve years later, we find ourselves in a sea of more than 200 coding platforms for K-12, most of whose fundamental aim is to develop these core computational thinking skills. Still, the details of programmatical syntax distract from the core ideas of Computational Thinking. Moreover, the current approach requires new high-skill teachers, new time in school schedules, and new and expensive lab equipment to bring coding and robotics to K-12 classrooms. Thus, we introduce Polyup, a Computational Thinking Playground that is proven to be an engaging problem solving platform across hundreds of 3rd to 12th grade classrooms. This playground uses the language of math in a functional programing paradigm as the core of its visual, tactile interface. As such, it can be easily integrated into math classes, as well as computer science and robotics classes to complement existing approaches—covering a range of  topics from arithmetic to algorithms. We play live on the platform and share teacher and student points of view.