Programming with Henry the Robot Your future is no game. Eric Krokos Walter Hutchinson Naveed Khan Patricia Sazama

Goal Our Goal: To make learning programming easy and fun Eric

Problem motivation/Problem description Number of programming courses in high schools have decreased Programming is notoriously hard to learn Want to make learning programming more enjoyable Walter

Short review of past solutions to problem Math Blaster levels, explicit math problems, Po

Short review of past solutions to problem Alice drag-and-drop commands, simplified syntax, Po

Our Solution Create a video game to teach programming Fun Easy Non-intimidating introduction to programming Used simplified commands and syntax Drag and drop But adding levels and goals Po

Tasks Three Tasks: Moving commands into an object Learning information about a command or visual object Run the game Naveed

First User Testing Paper Prototype Problems Didn't know how to move commands Thought the start command was a start bubble Didn't know how to get more information about commands Walter

First Prototype people had trouble dragging and dropping commands, they clicked the program start button, Walter

Second User Testing Two Participants Lessons learned Changed program Start Point icon Add "Program Running" state notification Eric

Interactive Prototype Eric

Summary and Conclusion Helps make programming fun by teaching through puzzles Help spread programming to a wider non- technical audience More levels More complicated puzzles More commands introduced Eric