By Elissa Milto

This summer, the CEEO’s Community Outreach Fellows spent time in a local classroom leading computational thinking activities with middle school students. The activities were part of the Opportunities for Robotics, Building, and Inclusive Technology (ORBIT) research project, a two-year project funded by the NSF that began in September 2023.

The program was developed in partnership with classroom teachers. ORBIT research looked at designing a program for autistic middle school students that focuses on computational thinking practices (CT) and executive functioning skills (EF). There has been little research addressing CT for students that also addresses core goals for autistic students. This summer, the CEEO Fellows pilot-tested the ORBIT app with the support of the research team, which includes PI Jenn Cross, Co-PI Elissa Milto, and postdoc Rob Hayes.

Activities developed by the research team used the LEGO SPIKE Prime robotics kit. Activity themes were based on the students’ interests and teacher input. For each activity, the students were given a pre-built robot so they could focus on programming with the app. One activity, based on the book Make Way for Ducklings, tasked students with programming motorized gates to open when the ducks needed to cross the road. After each pilot-testing session, the research team made changes to the materials that teachers used.

In addition to information on the programming app, the research identified the need for student-facing scaffolds that aided students in making connections between classroom learning and ORBIT materials and strengthened EF. One developed scaffold is a planning board (pictured) to help students organize their ideas about the coding sequence before programming on the ORBIT app. Through pilot testing, students provided feedback on future changes to the app. A next step for ORBIT is applying for future grant funding.