In this paper we present ARCat, a tangible programming tool designed to help children learn DFS algorithm with augmented reality technology. The tool help children use tangible programming cards to control a search process, rather than control visual characters directly. With the special design of tile semantics and real-time feedback, the cognitive load of the learning process had been proved to be affordable to children (ages 8-9) with the result of our preliminary evaluation, which shows the possibility of basic algorithm education for young children with the tangible interface.

Cite this work: Xiaozhou Deng, Danli Wang, Qiao Jin, and Fang Sun. 2019. ARCat: A Tangible Programming Tool for DFS Algorithm Teaching. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 533–537. https://doi.org/10.1145/3311927.3325308