Analyzing–Evaluating–Creating: The ACE Test for Problem Solving in Visual Programming Domains

What is it about?

Schools are starting to teach kids how to think like computer scientists and solve problems better, even from a young age. But to see if kids are getting better at these skills, we need tests that can measure how good they are at thinking and solving problems. Some tests have been made already, but they mainly focus on multiple-choice questions, which don't really check how creative kids are when they solve problems. We created a new test called ACE. It's different because it looks at three important levels of thinking: Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating. ACE has questions that involve using basic computer programming blocks, and it's made for kids in grades 3 to 7. We tested ACE with 371 students from different schools, and it turned out to be reliable and useful. We found that kids who did well on ACE also did well on another popular problem-solving challenge called the Hour of Code: Maze Challenge by Code.org.

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Why is it important?

If you're interested in how schools are teaching kids to think better and solve problems, this paper shows a new way to measure their progress. It highlights the importance of not just answering questions but also being creative when solving problems, which is a skill needed in real life. It shows that the new test, ACE, is reliable and useful for teachers and researchers to see how well kids are learning these important skills. Furthermore, ACE comprises 21 multiple-choice questions, which can be used in your classroom too, for assessing students' computational thinking skills!