KR101368749B1 - A digital arty toy kit for programming education - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a digital art toy kit for learning programming which makes digital toys by assembling digital blocks which are modular by processors, motors, sensors, and the likes and automatically controls the digital toys by making a program which controls each digital block. The digital art toy kit for learning programming comprises: a plurality of assembly toy blocks; motor processing blocks which include motors, and in which a shaft or a body of the motor can be combined with the toy blocks; a display module; a communication terminal; and a processor. The processor comprises: a process block which stores program in order to control the motor according to the program, is input data sensed from the sensor, or displays data on the display module; and a program making tool which is installed in a computer and run, provides a tool to make the program and transfers the program to the processor through the communication terminal. By making moveable toys using the digital art toy kit, learning motivation and desire for programming can be increased, and by programming mainly based on flow chart graphics, students can easily access and experience algorithm development. [Reference numerals] (21) Motor; (31) Sensor; (42) Display module; (51) Processor; (52) Communication terminal; (70) Program making tool

Description

A Digital Arty Toy Kit for Programming Education

The present invention relates to a digital arts toy kit for programming learning that can make computer programming education fun and effective for programming beginners.

In particular, the present invention relates to a digital art toy kit for programming learning that can assemble a digital block modularized by a processor, a motor, a sensor, or the like to create a digital toy, and write a program to control each digital block to automatically control the digital toy. .

Computer programming education is an essential curriculum to foster creative human resources needed in a knowledge and information society. In particular, in order for Korea to survive as an IT powerhouse in the global competition, it is very important to carry out computer programming education from elementary school [Non-Patent Document 9].

Already, advanced countries in the English-speaking countries have been conducting computer programming education by organizing curriculum to learn advanced programming languages such as C and Java from the grade of elementary school in Korea. In the United States, the elementary information and communication technology (ICT) standard states that elementary students should not only be able to handle ICT tools, but also understand basic algorithms such as search, compression, and networks. . In the UK and Canada, computer education is required for all elementary school students in all elementary grades. Especially, high school students (grades 4-6) must include problem solving skills, that is, algorithm education. 2].

Therefore, it is necessary to develop a creative digital arts toy kit for creative and interesting computer programming education for elementary school students and to build a computer programming education system to apply it to school. In other words, the education system should include analysis and extraction of programming learning elements, development of teaching-learning courses, development of digital art toy kit programming modules, development of textbooks, teacher training, on-site training, analysis and evaluation of educational results.

In general, computer education in elementary school is based on simple other practice or using computer tools. However, it is absolutely necessary to provide algorithm education to train higher-order thinking skills from the elementary school stage, and this effort will lay the foundation for IT competitiveness and brighten the future of science.

In accordance with the above requirements, a variety of products have been developed for programming education that pursues the development of a variety of creativity by using a robot or a specific operation (Physical Apparatus).

Among them, LEGO Mindstorms NXT [Non-Patent Documents 4,5] using robots or kits support assembly kits so that robots can be manufactured in various forms, but Labview [Non-Patent Document 5], which is an expensive and programming tool, is programmed. It is not a difficult and complete flowchart for beginners.

Scribbler robot kit (aka non-patent document 6), a so-called graffiti robot, offers a variety of sensors, motor drives and simple programming tools at low cost (available at Amazon.com for $ 99). However, because the program must be downloaded as a kit and run, the program size is limited and the limitations of the CPU's Basic Stamp II make it difficult to train a variety of programs beyond its own demo program.

Pico Cricket [Non-Patent Document 7] is a creative mini-computing kit made by MIT, which can produce various types of structures, so that students can develop creative thinking skills and make various applications such as sense and sound or sense and motor driving. However, the program has to be downloaded and executed as a kit compared to the expensive one, and thus the size of the program is limited, and the efficiency in learning algorithms and the academic linkage with the C or Java language are inferior.

CSbots [Non-Patent Document 8] was developed by Carnegie Mellon University, and it is very difficult for beginner-level programming beginners to use as a tool for creative programming of college students.

[Non-Patent Document 1] Kang, Won-Won, Ae-Jung Lee, Jae-Ho Lee, "Programming Education for Elementary Information Science Gifted Students (Access using Visual Basic), Journal of the Korea Society for Information Education, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2003. [Non-Patent Document 2] Kim Gap-soo, "ICT Educational Methodology", Won Misa, 2006. [Non-Patent Document 3] http://www.nsf.gov, American Science Foundation [Non-Patent Document 4] http://www.lego.com [Non-Patent Document 5] http://mindstorms.lego.com [Non-Patent Document 6] http://www.parallax.com [Non-Patent Document 7] http://www.picocricket.com [Non-Patent Document 8] http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~csbots [Non-Patent Document 9] Jeon, Seok-Ju, "Development and Application of Programming Learning System using LED Display Kit, Journal of Korean Information Education Society, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2010.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the problems as described above, to assemble a digital block modular with a processor, a motor, a sensor, etc. to create a digital toy and to write a program to control each digital block to automatically control the digital toy. To provide a digital art toy kit for programming learning.

That is, an object of the present invention is to modularize the kit into digital blocks such as CPU block, motor block, light sensor block, touch sensor block and so on, so that students can construct the structure creatively, and to solve the grammatical barrier of programming It is to provide digital art toy kit for programming learning that provides program tools to create various algorithms by dragging and dropping icons by iconizing each key block and each digital block.

In other words, an object of the present invention is to easily connect input blocks (light, tactile, temperature, infrared, etc.) and output blocks (animation, sound, motor drive, etc.) composed of various kinds of sensors to create creative and artistic works. To provide a digital art toy kit that can be.

Students can create various shapes and animations through LED screens, which are objects that can be seen in real life, using drag-and-drop algorithms in flowchart editors (or program writers). It can be implemented and provides sound functions so that students can inspire curiosity and willingness to learn more than simply checking the results in text form.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a digital art toy kit for programming learning, comprising: a plurality of prefabricated toy blocks; A motor processing block having a motor, the shaft or body of the motor being coupled to the toy block; A sensor processing block having a sensor and coupled to the toy block; A processor block including a display module, a communication terminal, and a processor, wherein the processor stores a program to control the motor according to the program, receive data sensed from the sensor, or display data on the display module; And a programming writing tool installed and executed in a computer to provide a tool for creating the program, and transmitting the created program to the processor through the communication terminal.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a digital art toy kit for programming learning, wherein the program creation tool provides a graphical user interface (GUI) screen (hereinafter referred to as a creation screen) for creating a flowchart in a drag-and-drop manner. It is characterized by.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a digital art toy kit for programming learning, the creation screen comprising: a command area for providing inputs of unit elements constituting a flowchart and buttons for inputting attributes of the elements; A chart area for displaying a flowchart and arranging unit elements in a drag and drop manner; And a result area displaying a result of executing the program, and when a button of the command area is selected or dragged or clicked on the chart area by a mouse, a command corresponding to the button is performed.

In addition, the present invention provides a digital art toy kit for programming learning, wherein the command area includes a command for displaying data on the display module, a command for receiving data from the sensor, and a command for controlling the motor. Buttons of commands; And a button of a control command including a command for displaying a conditional sentence of the flowchart and a command for inputting a variable.

In addition, the present invention is a digital art toy kit for programming learning, wherein the processing instruction is characterized by a detailed instruction written in check marks or numbers.

In addition, the present invention is a digital art toy kit for programming learning, the display module is characterized in that it comprises any one or more of a series of LED, 8 × 8 LED, numeric display LED.

In addition, the present invention is a digital art toy kit for programming learning, the sensor is characterized in that any one or more of the light sensor, touch sensor, temperature sensor, infrared sensor.

As described above, according to the digital art toy kit for programming learning according to the present invention, an effect of inspiring learning motivation and motivation for programming learning can be obtained by making a moving toy for students and operating the toy.

In addition, according to the digital art toy kit for programming learning according to the present invention, an effect of making it easy to access and gain experience of developing various algorithms is obtained by allowing programming mainly on a graphic using a flowchart.

1 is a block diagram of a configuration of a digital art toy kit for programming learning according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 illustrates an example of a digital art toy kit for programming learning in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 3 illustrates a variety of sensors and LEDs that can be attached to the processor block using a cable according to the present invention.
4 illustrates one set of configurations of a digital art toy kit according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 shows an example of manufacturing a robot with the set of FIG. 4.
6 is a diagram illustrating a screen configuration of a program creation tool according to the present invention.
7 is a diagram illustrating a command configuration of a program creation tool according to the present invention.
8 shows a program and its result by the program writing tool according to the first experiment of the present invention.
9 shows a program by the program creation tool according to the first experiment of the present invention.
10 shows a program by the program creation tool according to the first experiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

In the description of the present invention, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals, and repetitive description thereof will be omitted.

First, the configuration of a digital art toy kit for programming learning according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, the digital art toy kit for programming learning according to the present invention is composed of a toy block 10, a motor block 20, a sensor block 30, and a process block 50. In addition, it is configured to further include a program creation tool 70 is installed and executed in the computer (60). In addition, it may further include an output block 40.

Toy block 10 is a block that can be assembled prefabricated, refers to those that can be easily assembled prefabricated toy blocks, such as lego blocks, general toys, recycled materials, and the like. Therefore, by using such a toy block 10 can be made a variety of creative art work.

Motor block 20 is a block having a motor 21, the shaft or body of the motor can be coupled to the toy block (10). In particular, the motor block 20 is responsible for the output of at least two motors can adjust the driving direction and speed of the motor. The motor block 20 may be provided with only a geared motor without an external block.

The sensor block 30 is a block having a sensor 31 and coupleable to the toy block 10. The sensor block 30 may be configured of a temperature sensor block, a touch sensor block, an optical sensor block, an infrared sensor block, and the like according to the type of sensor.

The output block 40 is a block having an output device 41 and coupleable to the toy block 10. The output block 40 may be configured as a numerical display block capable of displaying various numerical values of three digits, a sound control block for outputting sound, or the like, depending on the output device.

The process block 50 includes a display module 42, a communication terminal 52, and a processor 51 and is a block that can be coupled to the toy block 10.

The display may be configured as a display module 42 basically mounted on the process block 50 and a display output device 41 composed of a separate block 40. The display module 42 may also be an animation module for showing animation.

Preferably, the display module 42 (or display output device 41) may be composed of any one or more of a series of LED, 8 × 8 LED, numeric display LED.

The communication terminal 52 is a communication module in charge of communicating with the computer 60.

The processor 51 stores a program to control the motor 21, receive data sensed from the sensor 31, or transmit data or sound to the output device 41 and the display module 42 according to the program. Display or output.

In addition, although not shown in Figure 1 includes a power supply module for supplying power.

Meanwhile, the motor block 20, the sensor block 30, the output block 40, the process block 50, and the like may be coupled to each other directly or through coupling with the toy block 10.

Hereinafter, the motor block 20, the sensor block 30, the output block 40, and the process block 50 are distinguished from the toy block 10 and will be referred to as digital blocks.

2 shows an example of a digital art toy kit for programming learning according to the present invention.

Each digital block can be easily connected to recyclables, toys, and lego blocks that are frequently used at home, so that various creative arts can be created. Therefore, the final goal of the present invention is to develop a digital art toy kit as a programming education tool to give young students an interest and fun for computer programming, and to induce excellent gifted students to enter the engineering field.

Figure 3 illustrates a variety of sensors and LEDs that can be attached to the processor block using a cable according to the present invention. In Figure 3, (a) infrared sensor, (b) temperature sensor, (c) LED, (d) touch sensor. 4 shows one set of configurations of a digital art toy kit, and FIG. 5 shows an example of building a robot from the set of FIG. In Figure 5, (a) is a form attached to the digital art toy kit to the recycling box, (b) is a robot work made using colored paper, Leco blocks, clay and the like.

Next, the program creation tool 70 according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

The program creation tool 70 is installed and executed in the computer 60 to provide a tool for creating a program, and transmits the created program to the processor 51 through the communication terminal 52.

In particular, the program creation tool 70 provides a screen (hereinafter, a creation screen) of a graphical user interface (GUI) for creating a flowchart by creating a flowchart in a drag and drop manner.

As shown in Fig. 6, the creation screen includes: a command area (2) for providing buttons for inputting unit elements constituting a flowchart and inputting attributes of the elements; A chart area (4) which displays a flowchart but can arrange each unit element in a drag-and-drop manner; And a result region 6 in which intermediate values of the program execution result or variables are displayed.

In this case, when a button is dragged or selected in the chart area ④ while the button in the command area ② is selected, a command corresponding to the button is executed. The performed result is displayed in the result area (6).

Specifically, the menu area (①) area controls basic file input / output and program execution and stop, and the command area (②) provides various commands and variables that can be programmed by students as icons. Drag and drop the icon onto the chart area (④) to proceed with the programming.

In the help area ③, a brief description and example of the selected command icon appears. The chart area (④) is a space where students actually implement programming, and the list area (⑤) can write commands in text form instead of icons. This part is very similar to the C language, which can be a great help for future students studying the professional C language. The result area ⑥ is a space where output through the computer screen can be made. The printed text first goes down.

As shown in FIG. 7, in the command region ②, a process including a command for displaying data on the display module 42, a command for receiving data from the sensor 31, and a command for controlling the motor 21. Buttons of commands; And a button for a control command including a command for displaying a conditional sentence of the flowchart and a command for inputting a variable.

Next, a first experiment in which a program is created and executed by the program creation tool 70 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 8.

FIG. 8A shows an example in which a program for displaying an arrow is displayed on the display module 42, and FIG. 8B shows the result.

In the chart area 4 of FIG. 8, the LED 8 × 8 may be checked and a command may be written to cause the LED to emit light in a portion where a check mark appears. In addition, the speed of the motor can be adjusted by entering a number in the motor output.

That is, in the chart area (4), the processing instruction is determined by writing a detailed instruction with a check mark or a number.

8 is an example of a simple program that receives a value of a light sensor as a variable and quickly drives or stops two motors according to the value.

Next, a second experiment of creating and executing a program by the program creation tool 70 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

9 shows an example of creating and executing a simple program using two variables.

Next, a third experiment in which a program is created and executed by the program creation tool 70 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

10 shows an example of creating and executing a simple program using an array.

FIG. 10 is a simple music playing program for storing a frequency value of a doramipa solasido in an array and generating a sound according to a value input from a touch sensor (three touches can represent an input value of 0 to 7). .

Next, the effect of the present invention will be described in more detail.

Learning computer programming is a very difficult process. In particular, in order to provide computer programming education for elementary school students in non-English speaking countries, front-line teachers should have various experiences and extensive knowledge of computer programming, develop appropriate teaching tools and materials, and have standardized teaching-learning methods. However, front-line teachers lack the time and ability to develop these advanced technical skills in student management, classes, and chores. Therefore, it is necessary for excellent researchers at the university to develop original programming learning methods, teaching materials and teaching-learning methods, and provide programming field education in connection with missionaries.

The United States has provided education through the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA to deliver scientific research experiences to elementary, middle, and high school students and teachers. NSF's GK-12 program is a program in which graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics cooperate with front-line teachers to teach new knowledge of science to elementary, middle, and high school students. To form educational partnership between universities [Non-Patent Document 3]

According to the present invention, when an input from various senses is executed and an algorithm made of a flowchart is executed, an animation appears in the LED animation block of the art toy kit, and the motor and the sound can be driven. In addition, the present invention is a computer programming education method that is easily converted to the C language and the Java language and has academic linkage and is compatible with existing LEGO products. Through this, the present invention will be an important foundation for the education of computer programming in Korea.

In addition, the art toy kit according to the present invention is superior in function and educational effect compared to the existing scribbler robot [non-patent document 6], Pengquin robot [non-patent document 6], Pico Cricket [non-patent document 7] and the like. And the price is also very cheap, which is 1/2 of the price of scribbler robot or penguin robot, and 1/5 of Pico Cricket. Therefore, it is expected that the effect will be sufficient in terms of economics as it is most suitable for the level of Korean children and can be exported to China, Japan, etc., which is not English.

On the other hand, the advantages obtained when teaching-learning using the present invention is as follows.

1. Inspiring learning motivation and motivation for programming can be learned using interesting materials related to real life.

2. Unlike C or Visual Basic, it can be used to improve creativity and problem solving ability because it can spend a lot of time solving problems instead of grammar and language function learning.

3. Graphic-oriented programming education using flowchart editor makes it easy to understand the overall flow of algorithms, so you can gain experience in developing various algorithms.

4. Stimulates interest and curiosity about materials and devices commonly encountered in daily life, and can be applied to various fields.

6. It can be used as a pre-learning tool for advanced programming languages (C, Java) to learn in tertiary education.

The invention made by the present inventors has been described concretely with reference to the embodiments. However, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and that various changes can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

10: toy block
20: motor block 21: motor
30: sensor block 31: sensor
40: output block 41: output device
42: display module 50: process block
51 processor 52 communication terminal
60: Computer 70: Program Builder

Claims (7)

A number of prefabricated toy blocks;
A motor block having a motor, the shaft or body of the motor being coupled to the toy block;
A sensor block having a sensor and coupled to the toy block;
A processor block including a display module, a communication terminal, and a processor, wherein the processor stores a program to control the motor according to the program, receive data sensed from the sensor, or display data on the display module; And
A program creation tool installed on the computer and executed to provide a tool for creating the program, and transmitting the created program to the processor through the communication terminal;
The program creation tool is a digital art toy kit for programming learning, characterized in that to provide a graphical user interface (GUI) screen (hereinafter writing screen) to create a program by dragging and dropping a flowchart.
delete The method of claim 1, wherein the creation screen,
A command area for providing inputs of unit elements constituting a flowchart and buttons for inputting attributes of the elements;
A chart area for displaying a flowchart and arranging unit elements in a drag and drop manner; And
It includes a result area in which the execution result of the program is displayed,
And a command corresponding to the button is executed when the mouse is dragged or clicked on the chart area while the button of the command area is selected.
The method of claim 3, wherein the command area,
A button of a processing command including a command to display data on the display module, a command to receive data from the sensor, and a command to control the motor; And
And a button of a control command including a command for displaying a conditional sentence of a flowchart and a command for inputting a variable.
5. The method of claim 4,
The processing instruction is a digital art toy kit for programming learning, characterized in that the detailed instructions are written by a check mark or a number.
The method of claim 1,
The display module is a digital art toy kit for programming learning, characterized in that it comprises one or more of a series of LED, 8 × 8 LED, numeric display LED.
The method of claim 1,
The sensor is a digital art toy kit for learning learning, characterized in that any one or more of the light sensor, touch sensor, temperature sensor, infrared sensor.

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