Playing, Constructionism, and Music in Early-Stage Software Engineering Education

Understanding that design involves trade-offs, thinking at multiple levels of abstraction, and considering the cohesion and coupling between sub-components of a larger whole is an important part of software (and other) engineering. It can be challenging to convey such abstract design concepts to novice engineers, especially for materials that are themselves abstract (e.g., software). Such challenges are compounded when teaching at the secondary school stage where students have limited experience of large-scale design challenges that motivate the need for abstraction at all. In this paper, we describe a method for introducing these concepts to secondary school students using LEGO (R) and Raspberry Pi computers, asking them to build musical instruments as an entertaining way of motivating engagement with learning about design through play. The method has been successfully piloted in a series of three classroom sessions and key observations and experiences of using the method are presented.