A robotic agent (‘Karel’) in the shape of a turtle needs help to navigate and collect/place stones in a grid-like ‘world’. Students will be asked to learn and apply computational problem-solving concepts and skills in a block-based programming environment to ensure Karel can achieve its goals. 

To get started, you can assign your students one of our expert-designed Assessment Experiences (maps), build a new Assessment Experience (map) using the PILA assignment tool, or design an individual task using the Karel task customiser tool. 

PILA_KarelApp_description_June 2021.pdf

Welcome to the Karel assessment application! 'Karel', a turtle-shaped robotic agent, needs help to navigate this grid-like ‘world’ and complete a few missions. To ensure Karel can achieve its goals, students will learn and apply computational problem-solving concepts and skills in a simple, accessible block-based programming environment.

Karel the Turtle

Recognizing that no class is the same and that a given library of exercises may not always satisfy specific learning goals, PILA provides you with intuitive, easy-to-use tools to create assessment experiences and tasks that suit your students' needs and skills to the best.

Using the assignment tool, create a new assessment experience (map) targeted to your students’ needs by selecting and organising tasks developed by PILA experts, you, or other teachers/researchers. 

Build your own assessment experiences (maps)

With no programming experience required, this task customiser tool allows you to design new tasks for your students to try out. You can either modify an existing task, or start fresh. 

PILA | Welcome to the Karel assessment application

PILA | Karel the turtle

Karel the Turtle is an application where students are asked to learn and apply concepts and skills specific to computational problem solving while helping Karel the turtle navigate his ‘world’ in a block-based coding environment. This application challenges students with assessment experiences or maps that are either 

1) pre-developed by PILA experts and piloted in schools, or 

2) created by YOU or other fellow teachers with the help of simple PILA customisation tools. 

The best part? No programming skills are needed!

Traditional text-based programming languages can be difficult to learn, especially for beginners. Block-based coding, like ones seen on our Karel the Turtle application, gives learners the opportunity to develop basic computational thinking skills that are essential for programming.

Click on the blue button to access & browse the complete Karel assessment experiences (maps) and tasks library. No map or task perfectly suits your teaching needs? You can create your own! Scroll down tp learn more about the the Karel Customizer tools.

The assessment experiences (maps) are developed by experts to provide a snapshot of where students are in their learning. All assessment experiences begin with a short tutorial, followed by a series of shorter tasks that are meant to prepare students for a longer challenge task, and end with a brief questionnaire. 

To assign an assessment experience (map), click on "Assign". A link will be created that you can share with your students. A new session will also appear in your account, corresponding to the assessment experience (map) you assigned: here you will find information on student performance. 

You can access the Karel assessment experiences (map) and tasks library by clicking on the blue button below.

Coming in 2022  - In this application, students will be assessed on their ability to learn and subsequently teach a virtual agent named Betty about a complex phenomenon. In order to do this well, students will need to study resources and then construct an accurate causal model of the systems or processes that make up the complex phenomenon. To receive feedback on the completeness and accuracy of their understanding, students can ask Betty to answer questions based on the information they conveyed through their causal map. 

While we work on Betty's Brain, you can...

Help Betty do well on her test! Learn about complex phenomena, uncover and graphically represent the interaction among different variables and teach Betty about it all. Coming in early 2022.

Betty's Brain

COMING IN 2023 - Created by Enlightware, Cand.li unites creative thinking and computational problem solving by letting users design and build videogames from scratch using simple visual programming. On PILA, Cand.li challenges students to beat game-like levels by placing missing platforms, building intricate mechanisms and coding new movements and interactions for their character. 

COMING IN 2023 - Cand.li unites creative thinking and computational problem solving by letting users design and build games from scratch using simple visual programming.

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Assessment Applications

Coming in 2022 - This module will assess students’ ability to understand and model how complex systems work.

Coming in early 2022 - Systems thinking is the process of building an understanding of the relationship between parts of a complex system, and how these relationships create certain dynamics within that system. It can help students create a deeper understanding of why things happen a certain way, and to construct a broader perspective that informs the type of questions they ask and solutions they imagine for complex issues. 

The digital tools and environments offered by PILA will provide students with tangible opportunities to examine the interdependencies and ever-changing variables that are characteristic of real-life phenomena, assessing their ability to understand and model how those work. 

Coming in 2022 - Systems Thinking is defined as the capacity to understand and model how complex systems work. Students will learn about scientific phenomena, and will be asked to explore and graphically represent the interaction among the different elements that characterize that phenomenon by creating concept maps.

Systems Thinking Module

In the PILA Computational Problem Solving module, students will work through dynamic problems in open-ended digital environments where they have to interpret, design or debug computer programs in a block-based format. To ensure students have the opportunity to learn and apply concepts and skills, the assessment experiences provide learning resources and other forms of support, such as worked examples, hints, automated feedback and tutorials.

The Computational Problem Solving framework defines the set of complementary computational problem solving skills and concepts, as well as learning skills assessed in this module. 

This module assesses students’ ability to develop structured, step-by-step solutions to problems.

Computational Problem Solving  and PILA

PILA_CPSFramework_June 2021.pdf

Computational problem solving is the iterative process of developing computational solutions to problems. These solutions are expressed as a logical sequence of steps (i.e. programs) for others to understand and for computers to execute. Developing such solutions allows individuals to create, organise, express and share ideas using digital tools. Given the complex and ill-structured problems students will increasingly face in their everyday lives, mastering computational problem solving skills is key for them to thrive in a rapidly changing 21st Century society.

Computational problem solving is the iterative process of developing computational solutions to problems. In this module, students work through dynamic problems in open-ended digital environments where they have to interpret, design or debug computer programs in a block-based format.

Computational Problem Solving Module

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