Computer activities in the second cycle of primary school

Just a decade ago students were learning about information-communication technologies at computer science classes, and today we strive for developing computational thinking. Computational thinking is based on analytical thinking, which overlaps with logical thinking and systems thinking. It includes algorithmic thinking and parallel thinking. Throughout the master’s thesis we will encourage computational thinking in students by teaching them the binary numbers, search algorithms and programs as sequences of commands and events. Students acquire computer skills and develop computational thinking through activities in the form of games, puzzles or tasks. In teaching these activities it is advisable to choose a problem-oriented methods. Through such learning the students are more active and as a result, the knowledge gained is more permanent in comparison with traditional learning. In the master’s thesis we continued with work explained in the bachelor’s thesis Activities for developing algorithmic thinking among primary school students where we presented a set of activities through which the students meet with computer science. We want to know if the mentioned activities (CS Unplugged, solving exercises from the Beaver competition and creating programs in a visual programming environment Scratch) are suitable for achieving learning objectives given in the Computer Science primary school curriculum, which is elective subject. Activities are about computer science topics: binary numbers, search algorithms and programs as sequences of commands and events. The purpose of the thesis is to improve the teaching of computer science by developing computational thinking