The Effect of a Classroom-Based Intensive Robotics and Programming Workshop on Sequencing Ability in Early Childhood

This paper examines the impact of programming robots on sequencing ability during a 1-week intensive robotics workshop at an early childhood STEM magnet school in the Harlem area of New York City. Children participated in computer programming activities using a developmentally appropriate tangible programming language CHERP, specifically designed to program a robot’s behaviors. The study assessed 27 participants’ sequencing skills before and after the programming and robotics curricular intervention using a picture-story sequencing task and compared those skills to a control group. Pre-test and post-test scores were compared using a paired sample t test. The group of children who participated in the 1-week robotics and programming workshop experienced significant increases in post-test compared to pre-test sequencing scores.