Case Study: Turing Tumble - Programming with Marbles

Audience group: Primary or Elementary, Lower secondary or Middle school, Upper secondary or High school

Audience interest level: Receptive, Engaged

Topics: Number, computer science, hands-on

Origins of the Project

From Turing Tumble:

Turing Tumble was developed by a professor with young kids. He noticed that faculty and students alike treated computers like abstract black boxes and did not have the confidence to write even simple programs that would great improve their ability to analyse data and do their research. He felt that if youth were introduced to how computers work, they would have the confidence to figure out how things work later on. He noticed that there were a lot of toys that claimed to teach kids how to code, but most of them either kept the essence of computing abstract or they made it so that the player would be responsible for knowing if their complicated sequence was right. He wanted to make something that not only was fun and satisfying to play with, but also something that would physically show if you got the solution or not.

The Turing Tumble has 6 different repositionable parts that allow you solve challenges. It has bits and gears/gear bits that show the logic of computers mechanically by switching on and off. When players are setting up the pieces to solve a challenge, they are physically coding without needing to learn any syntax.

 

SHU workshop:

At Sheffield Hallam University, maths lecturer Claire Ketnor has developed a workshop session, ‘Programming with Marbles’, which uses Turing Tumble kits.

The session is based around Turing Tumbles. The challenges require setting up the machine to give particular outcomes. The advantages include that each Turing Tumble comes with a booklet of puzzles that range in difficulty, meaning there is always a back-up task for students who are either struggling or find the concepts too easy.

The aims of the session include the development of logical thinking skills and an appreciation of the inner workings of a computer. Another aim is to introduce pupils to binary numbers or to increase their understanding of this topic if they have encountered them before.

Practicalities

From Turing Tumble:

The Turing Tumble is something that is accessible without any extra instruction. The puzzle book starts by introducing one part: the green ramp. The first 4 challenges are designed to give the player comfort with that piece. As they move through the book, more parts are released and the challenges get more and more complex. Each challenge builds on the knowledge that was gained from previous challenges. The challenge are laid out with the starting set-up, the available parts to add with your own creative thought, and the outcome. We recommend the game for ages 8+ because of the reading level, but we’ve found that younger students enjoy it with a little guidance on where to look for the challenge outcome.

When we’ve used it in classrooms, we find that the students need very little direction to get started. We usually go over challenge one as a group, highlight that the marbles need to be led down the board with parts (no skipping or jumping), and then the students are ready to go on alone and solve challenge two. Sometimes players need to be encouraged to not have the marble skip down the board, but usually they work that out on their own.

We have a free Educator Guide that has computer logic lessons spread out throughout the challenges. It teaches how Turing Tumble is a mechanical computer and how that compares to the electronic computers we are used to. It shows the electronic equivalent of each part and teaches about logic gates, conditional statements and truth tables.

SHU workshop:

The first part of the workshop involves providing an introduction to the Turing Tumble board, the pieces, the general purpose of them and the general format of the puzzles. We then give the pupils chance to have a go at some of the easier puzzles to become familiar with the Turing Tumble. A group of 4-5 pupils would work together around a single Turing Tumble, with staff on hand to answer questions and to challenge the groups.

We would then progress onto introducing or reminding the pupils about binary numbers and their purpose. They are asked to write down the binary numbers for 0 to 15. The ‘bit’ in the Turing Tumble can either point left or right (which corresponds to 0 or 1 respectively). Having 4 bits above each other allows demonstration of the numbers 0 to 15 and the pupils are asked to work through these by manually changing the bits to represent the different numbers. Following this, the pupils consider a particular exercise in the set of puzzles (challenge 21) which involves setting up the Turing Tumbles to count the number of blue balls (up to 15) that pass through the board. There are also follow on problems (e.g. challenge 22 which involve subtraction and binary numbers) for those who finish quickly.

Throughout the session, activities can be tailored for individual groups. For example, if they are finding the concepts too easy, they can be asked more challenging questions (e.g. about the representation of numbers that are higher than 15) and the puzzles that involve additional thinking. For groups who are struggling, they can be directed to the earlier puzzles within the booklet.

Evidence and Recommendations

During the SHU workshops, evaluation was done by the central team who organised the practicalities of the session. Additionally, throughout the session, staff can evaluate how the session is going. Observing groups allows the person running the session to judge whether the level of difficulty is about right. Ideally the session will stretch the pupils, but will still be achievable. Adjustments can be made easily given the variety of difficulty amongst the puzzles provided with the Turing Tumbles.

More information

Turing Tumble website: turingtumble.com

Turing Tumble Education website: edu.turingtumble.com/

Online Turing Tumble emulator

YouTube video: Getting Started with Turing Tumble YouTube video: How Turing Tumble is a Computer