Unplugged Memory: A Report of an Unplugged Activity in High School

Education with a Technical Specialization in Brazil

Pedro Clarindo da Silva Neto

, Arthur Octavio Confessor

, Suellen Lages

ao Paulo Delgado Preti

, Tiago de Alameida Lacerda

and Thiessa Esteves Leite

Instituto Federal de Educac¸

ao, Ci

encia e Tecnologia de Mato Grosso,

Campus Cuiab

a - Cel. Octayde Jorge da Silva, Rua Zulmira Canavarros, 95 - Centro, Cuiab

a, Brazil

pedro.neto@ifmt.edu.br, {arthur.confessor, suellen.lages, thiessa.esteves}@estudante.ifmt.edu.br,

Keywords:

Unplugged Computing, Computational Thinking, High School Education, Unplugged Memory.

Abstract:

Courses such as Algorithms and Programming Language face signiﬁcant challenges in High School technical

education in Brazil due to the high levels of abstraction required, leading to low grades, high repetition, and

dropout rates. To address these issues, unplugged activities were implemented in the Programming Funda-

mentals course to foster Computational Thinking concepts: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction,

and algorithm design. These activities included the creation of board games designed to simplify complex top-

ics such as dynamic memory allocation and pointers. By breaking down abstract concepts into tangible and

playful activities, students demonstrated greater engagement and reduced learning barriers. The feedback of

the students indicated high satisfaction with the approach, highlighting its potential to bridge the gap between

foundational and advanced technical concepts. This paper introduces Unplugged Computing as a practical

strategy for improving the teaching-learning process in Programming Fundamentals during the year 2023.

1 INTRODUCTION

Dropout rates in Brazilian technical education are no-

tably high, particularly in subjects such as program-

ming fundamentals, where students face signiﬁcant

abstraction challenges. According to (Brackmann,

2017), (Giraffa and Mora, 2013), and (Rodrigues

et al., 2015), introductory programming topics such

as Algorithms, Programming Logic, or Fundamen-

tals of Programming contribute signiﬁcantly to fail-

ures and retention, as they are prerequisites for sub-

sequent courses. This, in turn, exacerbates dropout

rates, as illustrated by data from the Basic Education

School Census (INEP, 2023).

Although enrollment in high school technical pro-

grams has increased by 32. 2% in the past ﬁve years

(Figure 1), dropout rates remain a signiﬁcant prob-

lem (Figure 2). According to the most recent data

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4195-624X

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0784-3661

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-5350-1629

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2808-2311

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0689-1783

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5872-0012

Figure 1: Number of Enrollments in High School Education

(Total, Integrated, and Not Integrated with Professional Ed-

ucation).

from 2019, a rising trend of dropouts—deﬁned as stu-

dents ceasing to attend classes for an entire academic

year—has been observed, particularly in federal insti-

tutions. Factors such as academic under performance

and the challenges of transitioning to a full-time tech-

nical education environment with higher expectations

contribute to this problem (da Silva, 2020).

To address these challenges, innovative teaching

methodologies are essential. Previous studies have

shown that active learning strategies and tools such

Neto, P. C. S., Confessor, A. O., Lages, S., Preti, J. P. D., Lacerda, T. A. and Leite, T. E.

Unplugged Memory: A Report of an Unplugged Activity in High School Education with a Technical Specialization in Brazil.

DOI: 10.5220/0013185200003932

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2025) - Volume 2, pages 649-653

ISBN: 978-989-758-746-7; ISSN: 2184-5026

649

Figure 2: Students dropout rate in high school education

with technical specialization in the federal education net-

work in Brazil.

as Scratch (Rocha et al., 2013) can improve engage-

ment and reduce failure rates. Scratch, originally de-

veloped by MIT, has been widely used to teach pro-

gramming concepts in a playful and accessible man-

ner (Rocha et al., 2013). Similarly, Computational

Thinking (CT) has emerged as a critical competency

in technology education, fostering skills such as de-

composition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and al-

gorithm design (BNCC, 2017). These skills, funda-

mental to problem-solving, are integral to students’

ability to engage with abstract programming concepts

(Costa. et al., 2021).

Unplugged Computing, as disseminated by

(Tim Bell and Fellows, 2015), provides a means

of teaching Computational Thinking through play-

ful, hands-on activities that do not require computers.

This approach is particularly advantageous in con-

texts with limited infrastructure, offering a transpar-

ent and engaging way to introduce fundamental com-

puting concepts (Ara

ujo et al., 2021). By focusing

on real-world problems and collaborative tasks, un-

plugged activities foster deeper engagement and un-

derstanding.

In this context, this article aims to present an un-

plugged activity focused on “dynamic memory allo-

cation”, developed during the third term of the In-

formatics course (a technical specialization course

in high school), within the subject of Programming

Fundamentals. This activity leverages Computational

Thinking concepts to aid the teaching-learning pro-

cess, providing students with an innovative and acces-

sible approach to mastering complex programming

topics.

2 METHODS

The activities were carried out with high school ﬁrst-

year students (informatics technical course) at the

Federal Institute of Mato Grosso and applied in the

school subject of Programming Fundamentals. The

unplugged activities took place in the second half of

the year. Each lesson lasted 50 minutes, the institu-

tion standard lesson time. The activities were struc-

tured over three sessions: the ﬁrst dedicated to a the-

oretical lecture covering the key concepts, while the

second and third sessions focused on the development

and application of hands-on activities.

Programming Fundamentals is a ﬁrst-year course

discipline; topics such as recursion, memory point-

ers, and dynamic memory allocation are covered in

the third quarter. These topics often require students

to transition from the concrete knowledge gained in

elementary education to abstract thinking, which is a

signiﬁcant cognitive leap. This transition is particu-

larly challenging in technical courses, where students

are required to grasp concepts such as memory struc-

tures and algorithmic thinking early in their academic

journey.

To mitigate these challenges, simpler activities,

such as unplugged computing exercises, were intro-

duced. These activities were designed to foster en-

gagement and facilitate understanding by breaking

down abstract concepts into tangible and interactive

components. The main goal was to create a support-

ive learning environment that encourages exploration

and participation while reducing cognitive overload.

The unplugged activities were carefully designed

to incorporate key concepts of Computational Think-

ing (CT), which is increasingly recognized as a crit-

ical competency in technology education. CT skills,

such as decomposition, pattern recognition, abstrac-

tion, and algorithm design, were explicitly embedded

in the activities to ensure that students not only un-

derstood theoretical concepts but also applied them in

practice:

• Decomposition. Students were tasked with

breaking down complex programming concepts

into smaller, manageable components. For in-

stance, in board game design, they separated the

concept of dynamic memory allocation into its

core elements: data types, memory addresses and

pointers pointers operations. This incremental ap-

proach allowed the students to address individual

aspects of the problem in a systematic way.

• Pattern Recognition. Students analyzed how dif-

ferent data types address different memory spaces

and patterns in memory allocation. This activity

CSEDU 2025 - 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

650

helped them internalize these patterns, which

are essential for understanding the principles of

efﬁcient memory management.

• Abstraction. Students learned to focus on the es-

sential elements of memory allocation while ig-

noring less relevant details. By simplifying com-

plex problems into general principles, students

improved their ability to approach abstract pro-

gramming challenges.

• Algorithm Design. The creation of board games

required students to develop rules and step-by-

step procedures that simulated real-world pro-

gramming tasks. This hands-on experience fos-

tered a deeper understanding of algorithms, as stu-

dents had to ensure their game mechanics accu-

rately reﬂected the logical operations of memory

management.

Students were encouraged to design and imple-

ment their own board games using simple materials

such as paper, glue, pens, scissors and poster board.

This approach promoted creativity, collaboration, and

critical thinking. Unlike traditional teaching methods,

that rely heavily on passive learning, these activities

placed students at the center of the learning process,

empowering them to actively construct their under-

standing.

To assess the effectiveness of these activities, an

online questionnaire was sent to the students. The

questionnaire consisted of ﬁve questions, including

an open-ended question and four closed-ended ques-

tions. This approach enabled the collection of quan-

titative and qualitative data, providing insights into

students’ perceptions of the unplugged computing ap-

proach and highlighting areas for potential improve-

ment.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of un-

plugged activities in promoting engagement and un-

derstanding among ﬁrst-year technical students. The

results demonstrated that the activities not only facili-

tated the understanding of abstract programming con-

cepts, but also promoted a collaborative and interac-

tive learning environment.

The ﬁrst unplugged activity involved a game de-

signed to visually represent how information is stored

in a computer’s memory (Figure 3). The game em-

ployed different colored pieces of paper to symbolize

different data types, each occupying a speciﬁc amount

of memory. By interacting with these physical ﬁg-

ures, students gained a clearer understanding of con-

cepts such as memory storage and the use of operators

such as ”sizeof” to calculate memory requirements.

Figure 3: Board game on memory allocation.

The second activity, “Deu Alloc na Mem

oria”, in-

troduced the concept of pointers and dynamic mem-

ory allocation (Figure 4). The board game included

a dice in which the faces represented a data type or a

pointer-related action. The game execution consists

of players moving around the board by rolling the

dice, drawing cards and executing actions that sim-

ulate a memory operation. Through this playful inter-

action, students engaged with critical concepts such

as memory addresses, pointer usage and memory al-

location strategies.

Figure 4: Board Game “Deu alloc na mem

oria.”.

Classroom discussions and questionnaire re-

sponses provided second insights. Students fre-

quently reported that developing their own unplugged

games reinforced their understanding of program-

ming concepts by requiring them to actively apply

and explain these ideas. This observation aligns with

prior research on active learning, which highlights the

Unplugged Memory: A Report of an Unplugged Activity in High School Education with a Technical Specialization in Brazil

651

value of student-led, hands-on activities in promoting

deeper understanding and retention of abstract topics.

Since it was not possible to quantitatively mea-

sure knowledge retention at this stage, qualitative

feedback indicated that students were more engaged

and demonstrated greater interest in the subject mat-

ter compared to previous cohorts. Teachers noted

that students asked more insightful questions during

lessons and were better prepared to tackle advanced

topics. The collaborative nature of the activities also

helped build a supportive learning environment, pro-

moting peer interaction and critical thinking.

3.1 Assessment of the Activities

Developed

Near the end of the term, nine students voluntarily

completed an online questionnaire. The results re-

vealed unanimous satisfaction with the unplugged ac-

tivities, with 100% of respondents stating that the ex-

ercises enhanced their understanding of the material.

When asked about their preferred teaching method,

all students indicated a preference for a combination

of traditional lectures and unplugged activities.

Additionally, 88.9% of participants expressed in-

terest in using unplugged computing to explore other

programming topics. Suggestions for future activities

included data structures such as stacks, queues, and

linked lists, as well as advanced topics like artiﬁcial

intelligence and applied mathematics (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Responses on the use of Unplugged Computing

in teaching other concepts.

The feedback provided by students underscores

the versatility and potential of unplugged computing

as a pedagogical strategy. Moving forward, future

studies will aim to incorporate standardized evalua-

tion methods, such as pre- and post-activity assess-

ments, to quantitatively measure the impact of un-

plugged activities on students’ academic performance

and knowledge retention.

4 CONCLUSION

Teaching programming in technical courses presents

a major challenge for educational institutions: reduc-

ing the number of failures and retentions in these sub-

jects without compromising the quality of education,

ensuring that improvements are not merely numerical.

To address this, new methodologies have been sought

to assist in the teaching-learning process. Unplugged

Computing, one of the techniques of Computational

Thinking, has proven to be a strong ally in this pro-

cess.

The implementation of unplugged activities in

the Programming Fundamentals course demonstrated

the potential of key Computational Thinking con-

cepts—decomposition, pattern recognition, abstrac-

tion, and algorithm design—in simplifying complex

topics. Decomposition allowed students to break

down abstract problems, such as dynamic memory al-

location, into smaller, manageable components, while

pattern recognition enabled them to identify recur-

ring structures in memory management. Abstraction

helped students focus on the most relevant aspects of

the problems, and algorithm design encouraged the

creation of structured solutions through playful activ-

ities such as board games. These concepts not only

facilitated understanding but also enhanced engage-

ment and collaboration among students.

The observation that students better absorbed con-

cepts through the creation of unplugged activities is

supported by classroom discussions and questionnaire

responses. Students actively applied and explained

their understanding while designing their games, re-

inforcing their grasp of abstract programming top-

ics. This aligns with prior research on active learning,

which suggests that hands-on, student-led approaches

promote deeper understanding and retention.

The fact that it does not require the use of any elec-

tronic devices makes Unplugged Computing a suit-

able activity for various contexts, including ﬁeld trips,

technical visits, and environments with limited infras-

tructure. This adaptability is particularly relevant in

the Brazilian educational landscape, where resource

constraints can hinder the adoption of technology-

based teaching strategies. Moreover, the versatility of

unplugged computing allows its application in other

areas of knowledge, reinforcing its value as a ﬂexible

pedagogical tool.

However, it is important to acknowledge the lim-

itations of this study. The evaluation relied primar-

ily on self-reported feedback from students, which,

while insightful, does not provide objective measures

of knowledge retention or academic performance. Fu-

ture research will incorporate standardized evaluation

CSEDU 2025 - 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

652

methods, such as pre- and post-activity assessments,

to objectively measure the impact of unplugged ac-

tivities on students’ learning outcomes. These assess-

ments will enable a more comprehensive understand-

ing of the effectiveness of this approach and its poten-

tial for broader application.

As future work, the goal is to expand the range

of unplugged activities to address more complex top-

ics that students ﬁnd challenging, such as data struc-

tures and algorithms. Additionally, a broader research

effort on Computational Thinking and the use of Un-

plugged Computing is planned, with the aim of devel-

oping training programs for educators. By equipping

teachers with the skills to implement these techniques

in their classrooms, we can further enhance the qual-

ity and accessibility of informatics education, bridg-

ing the gap between foundational knowledge and ad-

vanced technical competencies.

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