Learning to program can be very difficult for students, since they must master language syntax, programming theory and problem solving techniques in a short period of time. Physical computing takes the computational concepts “out of the screen” and into the real world so that the student can interact with them, enhancing learning.
Following this paradigm we used the Arduino board to develop several learning modules to teach programming to science and engineering students. Lecturers explain a computational concept and, afterwards, reinforce it using the physical computing modules. For example, conditional structures are illustrated using a photocell, etc.
We have used these modules in several introductory programming courses for science and engineering students obtaining very good results: more students learnt to program and more students enjoyed programming.