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Title: Where's the Bug?: Helping Students Find Errors in Physical Computing
Popular platforms for teaching physical computing like the LilyPad Arduino and Adafruit Circuit Playground have simplified programming and wiring, enabling students to quickly engineer physical computing projects. But enabling students to rapidly design and build is a double-edged sword: Students can create functioning prototypes without fully understanding the underlying principles. With limited knowledge and experience, students struggle to locate and fix bugs, or errors, in their projects. Absent appropriate debugging tools, students rely on their instructor for locating errors, or worse, turn toward destructive tactics such as tearing apart and rebuilding their project, hoping the bug fixes itself. Students need tools targeted to their ability that scaffold debugging and help them locate bugs in the mixed hardware/software environment of physical computing. I developed Circuit Check to scaffold the debugging process for students. It enables students to observe real-time sensor data and test hardware components through a novel adaptation of the traditional breakpoint for physical computing.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1742081
PAR ID:
10386630
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2
Volume:
2
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1084 to 1084
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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