Computational Thinking: Learning by Doing with the Cinco Adventure Game Tool

Aspiring software developers, like the novice students in Computer Science courses, need to acquire a thorough understanding of fundamental computational concepts like sequential execution, conditional branching, loops, modularisation, hierarchy and reuse. This understanding and "computational thinking" is deepened when they encounter the concepts in different contexts and environments, as opposed to only in one traditional programming language. In this paper, we describe how we used the Cinco Adventure Game Tool, a tool that allows students to model simple browser games in an intuitive graphical framework, to train basic computational concepts in a creative and engaging, learning-by-doing fashion. On purpose, we steered away from traditional programming languages, in order to separate the use of the concepts and constructs from the hurdle of a programming language syntax and development environment. The experiences with a large group of first-term Computer Science students in two successive years were very positive: The students had no problems in understanding and using the concepts, used the tool proficiently and enjoyed designing and modelling the games. Working together on a game project in small groups, they showed sustained engagement, developed a high level of confidence, and created quite complex games containing various fundamental computational constructs.