Designing and Evaluating a Board Game for Computational Thinking in Education By Steven de Heus

In the last 15 years, computational thinking has been trending in educational research. Computational thinking encompasses the skills used by computer scientists when they divide large problems into manageable subproblems which can be solved systematically on machines with algorithms. Researchers argue that the soft skills used by computer scientists are useful skills for everyone and should be taught to students at an early age. 

This project is about making a board game similar to parity games that can be used in education to improve computational thinking, mathematical and general problem-solving skills. This game is to be tested with students from ages 9 to 12 in primary schools. In addition, a formal analysis is done on the game.

The goal is to find out which factors, such as age, gender, and competitiveness, affect how the students experience and play the game. This information can be used to help improve this game as well as future educational (board) games. The goal of the formal analysis is to find the most powerful strategies for playing the game so the game can be made more balanced which makes it more interesting for long term play by advanced players.