USING ARDUINO TO ENHANCE COMPUTER PROGRAMMING COURSES IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Engineers and scientists increasingly rely on computers for their work. As a consequence most science and engineering degrees have introduced a computer programming course in their curricula. However, lecturers face a complex task when teaching this subject: students consider the subject to be unrelated to their core interests and often feel uncomfortable when learning to program for the first time. A non-traditional approach might help students to overcome these difficulties. Several studies have proposed the use of the physical computing paradigm. This paradigm takes the computational concepts "out of the screen" and into the real world so that the student can interact with them. The present study had two aims: to design and implement several introductory programming learning modules applying the physical computing paradigm and to evaluate these modules when taught to science students. We designed different learning modules for lectures and for laboratory sessions. The aim was to enhance the traditional teaching methodology instead of replacing it. The modules covered the teaching of a compiled language, C/C++, and an interpreted language, Matlab. We selected the Arduino board as the hardware platform for the electronic component. Arduino thanks to its open-source nature-is supported by a vast user community who share their ideas, projects and solutions. The effectiveness of the Arduino modules was assessed by comparing two programming courses: in one the teacher used traditional methods; in the other he enhanced these with the Arduino modules. In the second case traditional lectures were enhanced using Arduino demonstrations and students performed laboratory sessions with the Arduino platform.