Computational Thinking Training for Elementary School Students in Tembalang and Gunungpati, Semarang City
Posted on: 2021-05-21 16:58:35
Skills in Computational Thinking are one of the most important problem-solving techniques today, especially for the next generation to be competitive in this digital economy era. This skill requires students to be able to think about solving problems in the real world.
In order to keep up with the changing world, an appropriate response is needed. The Directorate General of Primary and Secondary Education, Ministry of Education and Culture, encourages efforts to cultivate Computational Thinking skills from an early age as has been done by the Indonesian Computer Olympiad Team (TOKI) through the Bebras competition (Bebras Indonesia, 2018).
To support the appeal of the Directorate General of Primary and Secondary Education regarding Computational Thinking and Bebras competitions, the service team of the Department of Computer Science / Informatics, Universitas Diponegoro held a Computational Thinking training aimed at SD Tembalang and Gunungpati students, Semarang City. This service activity was carried out by a community service team consisting of 5 lecturers and 5 students of the Informatics Department. Activities carried out on Saturday, March 27, 2021 online.
The activity begins with giving a Pre Test, conducting online training and mentoring, and a Post Test. The pre test aims to determine the initial position of the participants' ability to think computationally. Followed by a training session, students are given material related to the introduction of Computational Thinking, introduction to Bebras questions, as well as procedures and procedures for creating Bebras accounts. Then, the event was closed by filling out the evaluation and closing and post test.
Based on the average results of the pre-test and post-test that have been carried out in this Computational Thinking training, there is an increase of 40.78% from the average pre-test result of 21.91 to the average post-test to 26.86. This shows that the average test results increased after the students attended this training, and there was a fairly good progress. Then, in the evaluation filling session, the community service team asked participants to fill out the evaluation form, one of which aims to find out how much benefit this training event would have for the participants. As a result, as many as 60% of respondents stated that it was very useful and as many as 28.9% stated that it was useful, and as many as 11.1% of respondents stated that it was quite useful.
By holding this event, it is hoped that students can improve their ability to solve problems through computational thinking, and be motivated to participate in Bebras activities in Indonesia.
