HATCH: A Binge-Worthy Educational TV Show

In this project, researchers will develop a prototype of an interactive public television show to promote computational thinking for students in grades 3 to 5. The prototype will consist of a 26-minute episode of the television program called Hatch, where five characters embark on an adventure to apply computational thinking to topics including pattern recognition, abstraction, decomposition, debugging, and algorithms as part of the quest. The prototype will also include a caregiver website with resources, discussion prompts, and hands-on activities to support extended learning. At the end of Phase I, in a pilot study with 100 students in grades 3 to 5,  students and their caregiver, the researchers will examine whether the prototype functions as planned, if children are engaged while watching the first episode and during the hands-on activity with a caregiver, and if caregivers believe that Hatch has educational value.