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 Sergei N. Pozdniakov
Valentina Dagienė (Eds.)

Informatics in Schools
LNCS 11169

Fundamentals of Computer Science

and Software Engineering
11th International Conference on Informatics in Schools:
Situation, Evolution, and Perspectives, ISSEP 2018
St. Petersburg, Russia, October 10–12, 2018, Proceedings

123
Lecture Notes in Computer Science 11169
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Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
Jon M. Kleinberg
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Friedemann Mattern
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Moni Naor
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
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TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany
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Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7407
Sergei N. Pozdniakov Valentina Dagienė (Eds.)
•

Informatics in Schools
Fundamentals of Computer Science
and Software Engineering
11th International Conference on Informatics in Schools:
Situation, Evolution, and Perspectives, ISSEP 2018
St. Petersburg, Russia, October 10–12, 2018
Proceedings

123
Editors
Sergei N. Pozdniakov Valentina Dagienė
Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University Vilnius University
St. Petersburg, Russia Vilnius, Lithuania

ISSN 0302-9743 ISSN 1611-3349 (electronic)

Lecture Notes in Computer Science
ISBN 978-3-030-02749-0 ISBN 978-3-030-02750-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02750-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018958307

LNCS Sublibrary: SL1 – Theoretical Computer Science and General Issues

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018

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 Preface

This volume contains the papers presented at the 11th International Conference on
Informatics in Schools: Situation, Evolution and Perspectives (ISSEP 2018). The
conference was held at the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University LETI, Russia,
during October 10–12, 2018.
ISSEP is a forum for researchers and practitioners in the area of informatics edu-
cation, in both primary and secondary schools (K12 education). It provides an
opportunity for educators to reach the goals and objectives of this subject, its curricula,
and various teaching/learning paradigms and topics, possible connections to everyday
life, and various ways of establishing informatics education in schools. This conference
also has a focus on teaching/learning materials, various forms of assessment, traditional
and innovative educational research designs, the contribution of informatics to the
preparation of individuals for the 21st century, motivating competitions, and projects
and activities supporting informatics education in schools. The ISSEP series started in
2005 in Klagenfurt, with subsequent meetings held in Vilnius (2006), Torun (2008),
Zurich (2010), Bratislava (2011), Oldenburg (2013), Istanbul (2014), Ljubljana (2015),
Münster (2016), and Helsinki (2017). The 11th ISSEP conference was hosted by the St.
Petersburg Electrotechnical University LETI, Faculty of Computer Science and
Technology. The conference received 74 submissions. Each submission was reviewed
by at up to four Program Committee members and evaluated on its quality, originality,
and relevance to the conference. Overall, the Program Committee wrote 159 reviews
and 79 reviews were prepared by external reviewers. The committee selected 30 papers
for inclusion in the LNCS proceedings, leading to an acceptance rate of 40%. The
decision process was made electronically using the EasyChair conference management
system. ISSEP was federated with a teacher conference for K12 teachers. The con-
ference was geared toward teachers from St. Petersburg, although teachers from other
regions also participated. The decision to federate the teacher conference and ISSEP
was made so as to bring the results of computer science education research closer to
practising K12 teachers. We would like to thank all the authors who responded to the
call for papers, the members of the Program Committee, the external reviewers, and last
but not least the members of the Organizing Committee.

August 2018 Sergei N. Pozdniakov

Valentina Dagienė
 Organization

Program Committee
Conference Co-chairs
Valentina Dagienė Vilnius University, Lithuania
Sergei Pozdniakov St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, Russia

Steering Committee
Andreas Bollin University of Klagenfurt, Austria
Andrej Brodnik University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Valentina Dagienė Vilnius University, Lithuania
Yasemin Gülbahar Ankara University, Turkey
Arto Hellas Helsinki University, Finland
Juraj Hromkovič Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland
Ivan Kalas Comenius University, Slovakia
George A. Papadopoulos University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Sergei Pozdniakov St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, Russia
Françoise Tort ENS Paris-Saclay, France

Program Committee
Erik Barendsen Radboud University Nijmegen and Open Universiteit,
The Netherlands
Liudmila Bosova Moscow Pedagogical State University, Russia
Christian Datzko SVIA-SSIE-SSII, Basel, Switzerland
Ira Diethelm Oldenburg University, Germany
Michalis Giannakos Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Norway
Bruria Haberman Holon Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv, Israel
Peter Hubwieser Technical University Munich, Germany
Petri Ihantola Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Kirill Krinkin St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University LETI, Russia
Tiina Korhonen University of Helsinki, Finland
Peter Micheuz University Klagenfurt and Gymnasium Völkermarkt,
Austria
Mattia Monga Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy
Violetta Lonati Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy
Fedor A. Novikov ITMO University, St. Petersburg, Russia
Ralf Romeike University of Erlangen (FAU), Germany
VIII Organization

Yuri B. Senichenkov St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, Russia

Giovanni Serafini ETH Zrich, Switzerland
Maciej M. Syslo Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toru, Poland

Organizing Committee
Mikhail Kupriyanov St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, Russia
Sergei Pozdniakov St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, Russia
Liudmila Bosova Moscow Pedagogical State University, Russia

Additional Reviewers

A. Alekseeva E. Jasut Y. Peryazeva

A. Chukhnov T. Jevsikova I. Posov
V. Dolgopolovas U. Jung E. Reci
F. Faiella F. Kalelioglu Y. Shichkina
N. Grgurina M. Kesselbacher J. Staub
U. Hauser T. Kohn G. Stupurien
M. Ivanovic S. Pasterk M. Winczer

Sponsoring Institutions

St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University LETI

Publishing house BINOM. Knowledge Laboratory
 Contents

Role of Programming and Algorithmics in Informatics

for Pupils of All Ages

Exploring Control in Early Computing Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Ivan Kalas, Andrej Blaho, and Milan Moravcik

Autonomous Recovery from Programming Errors Made by Primary

School Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Martina Forster, Urs Hauser, Giovanni Serafini, and Jacqueline Staub

Effects on the School Performance of Teaching Programming

in Elementary and Secondary Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Angélica Herrera Loyo

A Case Study on the Effect of Using an Anchored-Discussion Forum

in a Programming Course. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Jean-Philippe Pellet, Gabriel Parriaux, and Tristan Overney

Students Teach a Computer How to Play a Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Sylvia da Rosa Zipitría and Andrés Aguirre Dorelo

Teaching Programming and Algorithmic Complexity

with Tangible Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Tobias Kohn and Dennis Komm

A Diagnostic Tool for Assessing Students’ Perceptions and Misconceptions

Regards the Current Object “this” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Ragonis Noa and Shmallo Ronit

On Preferences of Novice Software Engineering Students: Temperament

Style and Attitudes Towards Programming Activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Tatjana Jevsikova, Valentina Dagienė, and Vladimiras Dolgopolovas

National Concepts of Teaching Informatics

Standards for Higher Secondary Education for Computer

Science in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Arno Pasternak, Lutz Hellmig, and Gerhard Röhner

Computer Science Teachers Perspectives on Competencies - A Case Study

in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Fayiq Alghamdi, Arnold Pears, and Aletta Nylén
X Contents

A Core Informatics Curriculum for Italian Compulsory Education . . . . . . . . . 141

Luca Forlizzi, Michael Lodi, Violetta Lonati, Claudio Mirolo,
Mattia Monga, Alberto Montresor, Anna Morpurgo, and Enrico Nardelli

Comparative Analysis of the Content of School Course of Informatics

in Russia and Subjects of the International Competition Bebras . . . . . . . . . . 154
Liudmila Bosova

Teacher Education in Informatics

Computational Thinking: Constructing the Perceptions of Pre-service

Teachers from Various Disciplines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Ragonis Noa

Investigating the Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Teachers Attending

a MOOC on Scratch Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Ebrahim Rahimi, Ineke Henze, Felienne Hermans, and Erik Barendsen

Informatics and Computational Thinking: A Teacher Professional

Development Proposal Based on Social-Constructivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Carlo Bellettini, Violetta Lonati, Dario Malchiodi, Mattia Monga,
and Anna Morpurgo

Real Time Classroom Systems in Teachers Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Viktória H. Bakonyi and Zoltán Illés

Case Study on the Process of Teachers Transitioning to Teaching

Programming in Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Eva Klimeková and Monika Tomcsányiová

An Investigation of Italian Primary School Teachers’ View on Coding

and Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Isabella Corradini, Michael Lodi, and Enrico Nardelli

The Quality of Teaching - Is There Any Difference Between University

Teachers and School Teachers?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Elisa Reçi and Andreas Bollin

Contests and Competitions in Informatics

Piaget’s Cognitive Development in Bebras Tasks - A Descriptive Analysis

by Age Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Christine Lutz, Marc Berges, Jonas Hafemann, and Christoph Sticha

The Second Decade of Informatics in Dutch Secondary Education . . . . . . . . 271

Nataša Grgurina, Jos Tolboom, and Erik Barendsen
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 Contents XI

The Bebras Contest in Austria – Do Personality, Self-concept and General

Interests Play an Influential Role? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Andreas Bollin, Heike Demarle-Meusel, Max Kesselbacher,
Corinna Mößlacher, Marianne Rohrer, and Julia Sylle

Gender Differences in Graph Tasks - Do They Exist in High School Bebras

Categories Too? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Lucia Budinská, Karolína Mayerová, and Michal Winczer

Differences Between 9–10 Years Old Pupils’ Results from Slovak

and Czech Bebras Contest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Lucia Budinská, Karolína Mayerová, and Václav Šimandl

Problem Solving Olympics: An Inclusive Education Model

for Learning Informatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Roberto Borchia, Antonella Carbonaro, Giorgio Casadei, Luca Forlizzi,
Michael Lodi, and Simone Martini

Socio-psychological Aspects of Teaching Informatics

Evaluation of Learning Informatics in Primary Education:

Views of Teachers and Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Johannes Magenheim, Kathrin Müller, Carsten Schulte,
Nadine Bergner, Kathrin Haselmeier, Ludger Humbert,
Dorothee Müller, and Ulrik Schroeder

How an Ambitious Informatics Curriculum Can Influence Algebraic

Thinking of Primary School Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Francesca Agatolio, Fabio Albanese, and Michele Moro

Computer Tools in Teaching and Studying Informatics

Gamification of Problem Solving Process Based on Logical Rules . . . . . . . . 369

Fedor Novikov and Viktor Katsman

Music Computer Technologies in Informatics and Music Studies at Schools

for Children with Deep Visual Impairments: From the Experience. . . . . . . . . 381
Irina Gorbunovа and Anastasia Govorova

Computer Modeling of Secretary Problem and Its Interesting Results. . . . . . . 390

Olga Starunova, Valeriia Nemychnikova, and Anna Dronzik

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Role of Programming and Algorithmics
in Informatics for Pupils of All Ages
 Exploring Control in Early Computing
Education

Ivan Kalas1(&), Andrej Blaho1, and Milan Moravcik2

1
Comenius University, 842 48 Bratislava, Slovakia
{kalas,blaho}@fmph.uniba.sk
2
Edix, Bratislava, Slovakia
[email protected]

Abstract. In the paper we reflect on how our design research approach in the
current development allows us to study the increasing cognitive complexity of
different levels of control which pupils conduct when they program Emil, a
virtual character on the screen. In our earlier work we outlined conceptual
framework for primary programming, which recognised three different levels of
control: (a) direct manipulation, (b) direct control and (c) computational control
(i.e. programming) an actor. In the present research we managed to get deeper
into the complexity of control by identifying four instead of three of its levels.
Based on our close collaboration with three design schools we have also found
that it is more productive to project and analyse learning progression of pupils
connected with control within two-dimensional grid, where the first dimension is
control itself and the second explores the way how the control is represented.
Along this dimension we have identified five distinct levels of representation:
(a) none, (b) as internal record, (c) as external record, (d) as internal plan for
future behaviour, and finally (e) as external plan for future behaviour. In our
paper we explain the grid of control by presenting selected tasks from different
environments of Emil, our new approach to educational programming for Year 3
pupils.

Keywords: Primary programming
Program as record
Program as plan

Levels of control
Control/representation grid of cognitive demand

1 Background

Through giving instructions, young children gain mastery over their world. They create and
control things to execute their orders. They set them in motion, make them do things, and “boss
them around”. How could this not satisfy a 3 years olds’ craving for omnipotence!

E. Ackermann, 2012 in [1]

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018

S. N. Pozdniakov and V. Dagienė (Eds.): ISSEP 2018, LNCS 11169, pp. 3–16, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02750-6_1
4 I. Kalas et al.

Actual interest in educational programming emphasizes the need to implement it

for every pupil from early primary stage. This is based on the perception of pro-
gramming as an important new skill for everybody. And naturally, it also motivates
researchers to study which computational constructs1 and computational practices to
introduce in lower primary school, so that systematic and appropriate interventions for
sustainable educational programming are being built.
In our current project we draw on the design principles and pedagogy of the
ScratchMaths intervention for Years 5 and 6 of the primary schools in England [4] but
move our focus to lower primary pupils and pre-Scratch programming: our goal is to
identify computational constructs and computational practices developmentally
appropriate for lower primary pupils2 and better understand how to break them into
productive gradations of suitable small steps3. We are developing new programming
environments for pupils to discover, explore and adopt these constructs and practices
through thoroughly designed activities supplemented with regular all-group
discussions.
In our work we are inspired by Papert’s position on programming as an opportunity
to experience and explore powerful ideas [5] and encourage pupils to perceive pro-
grams as instruments to do that, as objects to think with and think about. We have also
adopted Blackwell’s view [6, p. v] that pupils4 program whenever they stop … directly
manipulate observable things, but specify behaviour to occur at some future time.
Blackwell [ibid] continues by formulating two reasons that make programming hard:
(a) loss of the benefits of direct manipulation and (b) introduction of notational ele-
ments to represent abstraction. Another inspiration for our endeavour in understanding
how pupils control things to execute their orders… see [1], is Clayson when he
mentions computational control [7, p. 2.34]: Of course, we want to computationally
control the filling of design object parts… referring to our capacity to explicitly control
certain effect by expressing our intension in our own program, thus using programming
as an instrument to develop and explore better understanding of certain effect or
relation.
In fact, in this paper we focus our attention entirely on studying control, namely,
finding out in which steps pupils can learn how to plan future behaviour(s) of an actor,
how they can learn to externally represent their plans and work with them: read them

1
Here we borrow from [2] the dimensions of their computational thinking framework, however as we
explained in [3] we prefer to broaden the dimension of computational concepts into computational
constructs, i.e. concepts plus associated computational procedures (e.g. a sequence of steps as a
concept and acting it, interpreting, filling in a missing step, comparing two sequences, modifying a
sequence etc. as some of related computational procedures); and also, we consider control – the way
how pupils give orders to a sprite or a programmable toy – to be one of the key Brennan’s and
Resnick’s computational practices.
2
Aged 5 to 10.
3
By suitable steps we mean gradations of tasks which support all pupils in exploring these constructs
and practices and constructing their true and sustainable understanding. We strive to do so despite the
fact these concepts and practices are often wrongly considered trivial.
4
We deliberately narrowed Blackwell’s view from all non-professional programmers to pupils.
 Exploring Control in Early Computing Education 5

and envisage what they do, analyse them and compare, explain, modify, simplify and
share, simply think with them and think about them.
In our previous work, see [8], we identified three levels of control with growing
cognitive demand that pupils exploit5 when they control physical or virtual pro-
grammable devices. These are (a) direct manipulation, (b) direct control or direct drive
and (c) computational control. We can think of moving from one level to the higher
one as increasing the distance – in a symbolic or real way – between the device to be
controlled and the pupils who control it. In the following chapter we illustrate this with
two well-known instruments: Bee-Bots and Scratch.

2 How the Learners Control in Early Programming

To clarify our perception of the levels of control, let us select two typical represen-
tatives of programming tools in early computing education: (a) Bee-Bots, simple
physical programmable toys for very young learners; and (b) Scratch, currently the
most successful and influential virtual programming environment for older pupils and
after-school or out-of-school programming activities. We will characterise different
levels of control by examining how they manifest in these tools.

2.1 Controlling Bee-Bots

Bee-Bots are widespread physical programmable floor robots with five basic control
buttons (move forward and backward by a constant distance, turn left and right by 90°
and GO), plus extra buttons for Clear and Pause, well verified as a productive digital
technology for pupils aged 5 to 7 or so. It is a well-known practice of the lower primary
teachers in many countries, see our analytical survey [9], to integrate Bee-Bots into early
computing but also in various cross-curricular activities, often starting by young learners
moving the robot by hand through a constructed context (a ZOO, a house, a street, a
town etc.) on the carpet – thus exploiting direct manipulation control. Next step is to
press a navigation button to make it move a fixed distance forward or backwards, or turn
left or right, then running that command by pressing the GO button – conducting a kind
of direct drive control6.
In the sequence of growing cognitive demand, see [10], pupils then incrementally
collect (i.e. record) ‘one button – one step’ bits of planning while moving the robot in
parallel by hand on the carpet, thus physically interpreting the command by them-
selves. When the intended goal is reached, pupils move the Bee-Bot back to its initial
position and initial heading and press GO.

5
With occasional deflections, see our comment on controlling Bee-Bots later in the paper.
6
There is a deflection though from basic direct drive strategy in Bee-Bots. If we want to give it a
single command then run it, we have to press an arrow key, then press GO, then before the following
command is pressed, Clear the memory. Otherwise the next command would be added at the end of
the previously recorded steps. This makes direct drive with Bee-Bots less straightforward and we in
our Bee-Bot pedagogy recommend advancing from direct manipulation to incremental recording of
the program, as described above.
6 I. Kalas et al.

Finally, pupils working in groups start planning the steps of the toy in advance,
without moving it by hand. From that moment they start controlling the robot
computationally.
It is significant for this paper and specific for Bee-Bots that the program pupils built
can easy be re-run by repeatedly pressing GO. And yet, learners cannot see the program
or access it in any other way, thus they cannot exploit it as an object to think with.
Sometimes experienced educators bypass this ‘limitation’7 by having pupils construct
the program both by pressing the buttons and building the program on the carpet using
paper cards, see [9, p. 62].
A step towards building explicitly represented program which pupils can work
with, i.e. read, analyse or modify is provided e.g. by Blu-Bots or Pro-Bots.

2.2 Controlling Sprites and Stage in Scratch

In Scratch environment the term ‘control’ is mostly used in the context of computa-
tional drive, referring either to:
• the Control category of blocks, including repeat, forever, if, ifElse, and repeat
until C blocks; wait and wait until stack blocks; and three blocks to control clones,
i.e. referring to standard CS concept of the order in which commands are executed,
or
• the More blocks category when Scratch scripts are used to control external hardware
such as LEGO WeDo, PicoBoard, InO Bot and others.
In the context of educational programming and research, where we want to better
understand the learning processes of pupils developing their computational thinking, all
three levels of control can be identified when working with Scratch:
• we directly manipulate a sprite when we ‘manually’ switch its costume in the
Costumes tab or drag8 it in the stage (not in the player mode) etc.
• we directly control a sprite or the stage when we click an isolated block in the
scripts area, such as next costume (block with no input), move 30 steps (block with
a number input) or switch backdrop to backdrop (block with a drop-down menu of
all alternatives) etc., thus directly executing the corresponding command,
• we computationally control a sprite, multiple sprites or a stage, if we build one or
several scripts, either incomplete (with no event block atop) or complete, and either
click the script or trigger the corresponding event. In that way we run (and can re-
run, debug, modify or delete) a future behaviour description which we previously
planned and constructed.
Although technically we can consider an isolated block to be a ‘short incomplete script’
and ignore differences between the two levels of control, in our educational context we
see clear and important distinctions here. In the ScratchMaths pedagogical framework

7
Although we consider it developmentally appropriate affordance of Bee-Bots.
8
Note that such dragging (we call it ‘meta dragging’) is in Scratch indicated by a shadow rim around a
sprite.
 Exploring Control in Early Computing Education 7

of 5Es, see [12] or [4], we encourage learners to explore a new block in isolation,
incrementally building the insight into the programming constructs in behind, only
then exploit it as an instrument in their thinking about, planning, or discussing a future
behaviour, see Fig. 1.

3 Method

In this paper we focus on exploring cognitive complexity embedded in control, one of

the key practices of educational programming, which pupils conduct when they pro-
gram a virtual sprite or sprites in the screen. To achieve that goal, it is natural that we
employ design research methods, see [13] or [14], as far as:
• we want to learn how demanding different levels of control are for primary pupils
and how to implement them in regular school context so that everybody can
experience them. To achieve that, however, we need new programming environ-
ments (which we failed to find among the existing ones9) to be used as our research
instruments,
• if we are to design such instruments in an appropriate way, we must better
understand the cognitive transformation of pupils when they are discovering and
exploring various constructs and practices, and understand which gradations of the
tasks will scaffold them in adopting those constructs and practices as their own.
In our research the decision to apply the design research approach with its numerous
small iterations immediately deployed in the real classes, evaluated and exploited in the
following design and development cycle in our three design schools proved to be
highly productive. We will present our resulting theory10 of how to classify and
understand the control in Emil environments in the next part. Before that, we will
briefly present some more details of how we proceed in the project.
In our iterative design we are closely working with three primary schools11 and five
classes, working in total with about 90 pupils. At the end of the first year of the project
we have completed the intervention for Year 3 (pupils aged 8 to 9). It consists of
12+ lessons with corresponding teacher materials, three software worlds or environ-
ments (connected into one common navigation interface) called Emil the Collector,
Emil the Caretaker and Emil the Collagist, plus pupils’ workbook with worksheets
attached to most of the units of tasks and several supplementary sheets with extension
unplugged activities to solve either at school or at home as homework.
Pupils always work in pairs using one tablet or laptop. The basic pedagogical
principle is that software does not provide usual feedback – pupils are always
encouraged by the teacher to discuss the solution and come to common agreement on
whether they solved the task correctly or not. Both members of the pair fill in their own

9
Having analysed and explored many alternatives.
10
In its current, not final state as this is on-going process. We comment on this issue in the closing
remarks.
11
We refer to them as the design schools, see more details in [11].
8 I. Kalas et al.

Fig. 1. In our ScratchMaths module 4 which focuses on place value, see [12], we use multiple
sprites with ten costumes displaying digits from 1 to 9 to 0. A learner can ‘manually’ switch the
costume in the Costumes tab, then explore the next costume block in isolation (making use of
the fact that costumes can be iterated in endless loop), then exploit it in a script, first with no
interaction, see (a), then broadcasting a message to a higher order digit, see (b).

worksheet. After solving a unit of tasks all pairs meet “on the carpet” in front of the
teacher and a common big screen and they discuss the tasks and the strategies they
applied. The discussion is moderated by the teacher, discussing the computational
constructs and practices involved. Both working in pairs then discussing with the
whole group are the most productive moments of “learning together”. The tasks and the
discussions (the questions asked by a teacher) are the key element of our pedagogy.
In our initial iterations we usually develop first one or two units of tasks and visit
our design schools where we run the lesson12 repeatedly in several classes. The team is
present, observing the process and talking to pupils and the teacher, then discussing our
notes and taking decisions for the next iteration. This usually results in transforming the
initial unit(s) of tasks into more and more detail gradation of units of tasks, after several
months becoming extended to ten or even more units of repeatedly trialled tasks.
After the first year of iterations well considered and trusted sequence of compu-
tational constructs and pre-constructs for Year 3 intervention has crystallised, together
with a series of the design principles that inform our development and a series of
powerful ideas which pupils experience, explore and construct in the units of tasks (see
[11], while the focus of this paper is studying control, the key computational practice).
At present we have already started developing the sequel intervention for Year 4.

4 Studying Control and Representation

Since the beginning of our design and development work in 80s we have always tried
to keep the principle that the actual programming of an actor13 should be preceded by
activities when the learners give isolated commands which the actor immediately

12
Currently the lessons are already run by the class teachers themselves, with our continuous support.
13
i.e. planning its future behaviour.
 Exploring Control in Early Computing Education 9

carries out. We often included a functionality which automatically recorded these

commands and somehow made them visible – to make it possible to reflect on the
previous steps14.
All versions of Logo15 support (or supported) a way how to run a single command,
some versions collecting and providing these commands in a history. As explained
above, we refer to these different approaches as (a) direct control and (b) computational
control and consider the later one claiming higher cognitive demand on the learners
than the former one – based on our long-term experience as well as the recent
observations, and in harmony with Blackwell [6] who considers the loss of the benefits
of direct manipulation16 being one of the main reasons why programming is hard.
Working with very young children, see [15] or [9], and encouraged by [5] we learned
that the most natural introductory level of programming – to precede direct control
itself – is taking the ‘physical‘ actor by hand17, or identifying ourselves with it and ‘act’
the solution. We refer to this basic level of control as direct manipulation, coined by
Shneiderman [16] and frequently used also in the domain of human-computer inter-
faces, where it is defined as… an interaction style in which the objects of interest … are
visible and can be acted upon via physical, reversible, incremental actions whose
effects are immediately visible on the screen [17], a definition well acceptable in our
domain as well.
When starting our current development, we relied on this categorisation of the
levels of control of increasing cognitive demand as one of the key design principles.
However, analysing the tasks and data collected in numerous iterations with the pupils
in our design schools18 resulted in two important findings:
• we can better understand various aspects of control if we refine it to consist of four
different levels, three levels introduced above, with one additional – indirect
manipulation, see Fig. 2 – inserted in between direct manipulation and direct
control,
• we can get much deeper in understanding and supporting learning processes in
educational programming at the primary stage, when we study two important issues
of computing together: dimension of control and dimension of representation of the
corresponding computational process and the relations between them.

4.1 Dimension of Control

Let us characterise this dimension of computing by explaining its four levels in the
context of Emil the Collector and Emil the Caretaker environments.

14
As a preparation for later perciving programs to be objects to think about and think with.
15
Including Scratch, as explained in 2.2 How we control in Scratch.
16
Blackwell does not distinguish between direct manipulation and direct control.
17
Which in the case of virtual actor would correspond to what we call ‘meta dragging’ by mouse.
18
Which regularly led to modifying or reorganizing the tasks, adding new ones and removing others,
transforming a task into a whole new unit of tasks.
10 I. Kalas et al.

Fig. 2. In the first environment pupils control Emil by clicking a position in his actual row or
column whereto they want him to float. In the first seven units of tasks Emil immediately carries
out each command, if possible.

Direct Manipulation. Emil is a virtual character living in his stage, thus directly
manipulating him (in the Scratch style) would mean dragging Emil by mouse ‘above’
the task19 to be solved. This, however, is not possible, thus the lowest level of control is
not applicable in our programming environments of Emil.
Indirect Manipulation. There is no way to move Emil by dragging him to another
position. However, we can click a position20 in his stage thus indicating where we want
him to float, see Fig. 2. At the beginning pupils usually start clicking neighbouring
positions of Emil. However, later units of tasks introduce new constraints which
gradually increase the need to optimise the number of clicks. These restrictions
encourage pupils to apply only ‘far clicks’: if any position in actual Emil’s row or
column is clicked, he will float there and collect all objects on his way. We tend to
distinguish such control from direct manipulation because learners do not act directly
upon Emil. More than that, it also increases the distance (both in real and symbolic
way) between the object which is controlled and the person who controls it. Thus, we
propose to call this level of control indirect manipulation.
For example, in the task E4 (i.e. 4th task of unit E) illustrated in Fig. 2 pupils are
asked to control Emil to collect the biggest amount possible, without picking up the
button – however, applying only four clicks. In this unit pupils will have already
completed adopting the practice of ‘far clicks’ as they have to minimize the number of
clicked positions, because each position clicked becomes ‘used up’ in that task, until
we click the Next or Again or Previous button.
Direct Control. When pupils start working with Emil the Caretaker, the ‘distance’
between him and them increases even more: no click in the stage is possible any more.
Instead, the arrow buttons (and soon also all other action buttons) will appear on the
right, see Fig. 3. Clicking any of them means giving a command to Emil who
immediately reacts – either by doing it (moving by one position or toggling the light in
a house on/off or other action) or by demonstrating he cannot carry that command out.

19
We sometimes refer to this as ‘meta dragging’.
20
with several constraints, which pupils will eventually discover by exploring – no diagonal clicks are
allowed, no clicks behind a missing possition and several other constraints.
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 Exploring Control in Early Computing Education 11

We consider such control in Emil more powerful than indirect manipulation. In fact, it
is not manipulation any more – unlike in the previous level, each command issued now
acts directly upon Emil and has unambiguous meaning and effect in the stage.
Computational Control. The highest level of control is planning future behaviour in
advance. In our intervention, this level is always indicated by Emil sleeping in his
stage, expecting us to think about the problem and formulate its solution as a plan of
future steps (moves, actions etc.), see Fig. 4. When the planning is completed, we wake
Emil up by clicking him – only then he starts carrying the steps out.

4.2 Dimension of Representation

When trying to refine the theory of four levels of control in programming with Emil in
lower primary years after almost final iteration of our design – develop – deploy – use –
evaluate – analyse – formulate theory design research cycles we were not contented
with the resulting categorization of the tasks. Figure 4 shows an example of two
different ways how computational control is represented and manifests itself in first
two environments of Emil Year 3. We struggled with categorisation of the levels of
control referring to the tasks of both Emil the Collector and Emil the Caretaker
environments.
At that moment we realised our units of tasks and resulting progression of corre-
sponding cognitive demand – in the context of control – can be better understood and
categorised if we start characterising them from two different perspectives, the first one
being the control itself (as presented above), the second dimension being the way how
the process (steps taken to solve a problem) is represented21. In the units of tasks of our
two environments under discussion we identified five levels of representation, let us
present them one by one.
No Representation. When pupils start solving tasks of the first four units of Emil the
Collector conducting indirect manipulation, the steps are not represented or preserved
in any way. In the next two units a small move towards representation by internal
records (see below) is taken by greying each position which pupils click to make Emil
float there. They also discover here that greyed positions cannot be clicked again. This
new constrain motivates pupils to optimise their solutions without being asked to use as
few clicks as possible.
As Internal Record. Starting with unit G, see Fig. 5 for an example, each click – a
signal for Emil to float there immediately – is numbered and greyed, thus creating an
unambiguous history of the moves. Additionally, maximum number of clicks (i.e.
moves) is defined by a stock of numbers on the left (while each click removes cor-
responding number from there). In that way, the exact history of the moves is kept
within Emil’s stage, the reason why we refer to this representation an internal record of

21
As we discuss later, the second dimension gives different categorisation of the tasks then the control
dimension by itself. When we use both dimensions in one grid, see Fig. 6, each of the resulting 20
combinations (positions) has a meaningful interpretation in educational programming.
12 I. Kalas et al.

Fig. 3. In the second environment, pupils directly control Emil by clicking the arrow or other
action buttons on the right – with Emil carrying out each click directly (in first four units). The
task here is to control Emil so that he lights up all houses. Each command is simultaneously
recorded in the panel above the stage. In part 5.2 we will refer to such representation of the
behaviour as its external record.

Fig. 4. Computational control level in Emil the Collector and Emil the Caretaker. Both formats
of plans are already familiar to pupils as the same notation has been used in the direct control
levels of these environments already, serving as a record of the steps and actions.

Fig. 5. The task here is to collect as many pears in a box as possible. Pupils will discover that
the number of clicks (i.e. moves) is limited and each click is recorded within Emil’s stage.
 Exploring Control in Early Computing Education 13

the process. An unexpected benefit of this decision is discussed in the concluding

chapter.
As External Record. In Emil the Caretaker we encourage the progression in the
context of control by moving from the indirect manipulation into direct control (see
above) and from the very beginning building a record of the steps (moves and actions)
in a separate panel above Emil’s stage, see Fig. 3 and also Fig. 4 on the right.
As Internal Plan. In the first environment with Emil, in the final two units, Emil is
initially displayed sleeping (in the second environment the same signal comes much
earlier). The opening task asks pupils to first plan the whole journey then wake Emil up –
he will start running the plan step by step. The plan itself is represented in an identical
way to the earlier internal record, see Fig. 4 on the left.
As External Plan. The highest level along the dimension of representation comes
when sleeping Emil waits until we construct the plan to be followed – and the plan is
externally represented in the panel above his stage. In that way, the program of a future
behaviour becomes an object to think with, discuss, analyse, and modify (in thoroughly
restricted way until last units of the tasks of the second environment and in the
third one).

5 Findings and Discussion

Resulting control/representation grid characterizes two dimensions in progression of

cognitive demand in developing basic programming constructs with Emil. Surprisingly,
each of its positions has a meaningful instantiation in educational programming at KS1
and KS2. While the goal of the educational programming is to reach the lower right
position of the grid – where an external plan of a future behaviour is interpreted by an
agent in a computational way – all other positions have meaningful interpretations as
well. For example, programming a Bee-Bot would fit in the lower left corner of the grid
(as the program is not accessible to the learner in any other way than running it by
pressing the GO button, i.e. from the learner’s perspective it is not represented at all).
On the other hand, if 5 or 6-year-old pupils interpret by hand a program for Bee-Bot
built of printed paper cards on the carpet, see [9, p. 62], they conduct an external plan
in a direct manipulation way – the upper right position of the grid.
Using the grid of control/representation has provided us with an effective means to
categorise the tasks of the first two environments of Emil, see the result in Fig. 6. It
illustrates that in Emil the Collector the progression of cognitive demand goes from
indirect manipulation/no representation to indirect manipulation/internal record to
computational control/internal plan, while Emil the Caretaker starts at direct
control/external record and progress to computational control with external plan. Our
conviction that the grid – when progressing from left to right and from top to bottom –
correctly corresponds to increasing cognitive demand in lower primary programming is
based on regular observations and iterative design and development of the units of the
tasks for pupils in our design schools and naturally needs further research.
14 I. Kalas et al.

Fig. 6. Two-dimensional structure of increasing cognitive demand of the tasks in Emil the
Collector (E1) and Emil the Caretaker (E2). The positions of three labels of E1 (from left to right
and downwards) characterise three major steps in the gradation of the tasks in Emil the Collector,
ditto with two labels of E2. This classification resulted from our analysis of the tasks after final
iteration of working with the pupils in our design schools

When pupils were solving indirect manipulation/internal record tasks in our design
class, see e.g. tasks in Fig. 7, they were asked to record their solutions in their
worksheets. When invited to the carpet to discuss that unit of tasks, the teacher asked
them how many pears they managed to collect, their answers ranged between 4 and 7.
As it is possible to collect six pears but not seven, teacher asked the ‘seven’ pairs to
demonstrate their solutions. At that moment several pupils ran back to their seats to
fetch their worksheets – so that they could read their solution and recapitulate them in
the teacher’s computer in front of others, an unexpected moment for us as the pupils
themselves discovered the value of the programs as records and effectively initiated
their transition to thinking of a program as of an executable plan.
Our understanding of control in early programming and how it relates to the way of
the representation of corresponding computational process has evolved considerably
since the beginning of the Emil design research and development. Presently, we are
approaching the final iteration of Emil the Collagist and we admit that a new com-
putational construct22 which pupils start exploring in this final environment for Year 3
may lead to further refinement of our perception of different levels of representation.
Next stage23 of this development will extend our effort both upwards to Year 4 but also
downwards into Years 1 and 2. We believe that these extensions will provide us with
many more opportunities to verify and refine our perception of the two dimensions of
computing: control and representation.

22
In [11] we refer to it more precisely as a pre-construct.
23
To start in October 2018.
 Exploring Control in Early Computing Education 15

Fig. 7. The task on the left is about collecting as many pears as possible in the box, while there
are only three clicks available, as signalled by three numbers at the left side. The task on the right
asks pupils to collect as many pairs of identical letters in the box as possible, with no single
letters collected. These scans of the pupils’ worksheets illustrate their own strategies how to
record the solutions.

In this paper we wanted to share our transformational experience in understanding

the cognitive demand of programming in lower primary years, our strongest experience
ever resulting from the consistent design research approach, based on regular and
systematic work with the pupils of our five design classes. In numerous iterations we
have deepened our insight into the relation between levels of control and levels of
representation of the processes pertaining to the tasks in the two environments with
Emil for primary pupils. This experience helped us identify the second (out of four)
levels of control and five levels of representation and classify the tasks from the
perspective of this control/representation grid.

Acknowledgments. The authors would like to thank Indicia, non-for-profit organisation fund-
ing our project, all the teachers and pupils from our design schools for their invaluable contri-
butions to the design and development of Emil intervention, and Celia Hoyles, Richard Noss and
James Clayson for exciting discussions about the issue of control in educational programming.

References
1. Ackermann, E.: Programming for the natives: what is it? What’s in it for the kids? In:
Proceedings of Constructionism: Theory, Practice and Impact, Athens, 10 p. (2012). [CD-
ROM]
2. Brennan, K., Resnick, M.: New frameworks for studying and assessing the development of
computational thinking. In: Proceedings of the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American
Educational Research Association, Vancouver, Canada, (2012)
3. Kalas, I., Benton, L.: Defining procedures in early computing education. In: Tatnall, A.,
Webb, M. (eds.) WCCE 2017. IAICT, vol. 515, pp. 567–578. Springer, Cham (2017).
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74310-3_57
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good many other schemes for mental cultivation were invented and
put into operation, and everybody said that that noble young woman
was doing an incalculable amount of good.
“As a matter of course, at least half the young men of the
congregation fell in love with the girl-preacher. They found it very
difficult to make any progress in courting her, for she wouldn’t listen
to any conversation on the subject. When Christmas came, the
question what to give her kept the young men awake night after
night. The women had an easy job, for they could give the preacher
clothes, and lace, and hairpins, and such, which the young men
knew that they could not give without taking a liberty. If she had been
a man, slippers would, of course, have been the correct thing, but
the young men felt that they couldn’t work slippers for a girl that
always wore buttoned boots, and that if they did venture upon such a
thing the chances were that she would feel herself insulted. One
chap thought of working on the front of an underskirt—if that is the
right name of it—I mean one of those petticoats that are built for
show rather than use—the words, ‘Bless our Pastor,’ in yellow floss
silk, but when he asked his sister to lend him one of her skirts as a
model, she told him that he was the champion fool of the country.
You may ask, why didn’t the preacher’s admirers give her jewelry?
For the reason that she never wore anything of the kind except a pair
of ear-rings that her mother had given her, and which she had
promised always to wear. They represented chestnut-burs, and it is
clear to my mind that her mother knew that no young man who had
much regard for his eyesight would come very near a girl defended
by that sort of ear-ring. Miss Marsh used to say that other people
could wear what they thought right, but she felt it to be inconsistent
with her holy calling to wear any jewelry except the ear-rings that her
sainted mother had given her.
“The best running was undoubtedly made by the cashier of the
savings bank and a young lawyer. Not that either of them had any
real encouragement from Miss Marsh, but she certainly preferred
them to the rest of the field, and was on what was certainly entitled
to be called friendly terms with both of them. Of the two the cashier
was by far the most devoted. He was ready to do anything that might
give him a chance of winning. He even wanted to take a class in the
Sunday-school, but the bank directors forbade it. They said it would
impair the confidence of the public in the bank, and would be pretty
sure to bring about a run which the bank might not be able to stand.
They consented, however, that he should become the president of
the new temperance society which the Rev. Miss Marsh had started,
as the president had the right to buy wines and liquors at wholesale
in order to have them analyzed, and thus show how poisonous they
were. As the cashier offered to stand in with the bank directors and
let them fill their cellars at wholesale rates, both he and the directors
made a good thing of it.
“The other young man, the lawyer, was a different sort of chap. He
was one of those fellows that begin to court a girl by knocking her
down with a club. I don’t mean to say that he ever actually knocked a
woman down, but his manner toward women was that of a superior
being, instead of a slave, and I am bound to say that as a general
thing the women seemed to like it. He wasn’t a handsome man, like
the cashier, but he had a big yellow beard that any sensible girl
would have held to be worth twice the smooth-shaved cheek of his
rival. He never tried to join the Sunday-school or the temperance
society, or do anything else of the kind to curry favor with the
minister; but he used occasionally to give her good advice, and to tell
her that this or that thing which she was doing was a mistake.
Indeed, he didn’t hesitate to tell her that she had no business in the
pulpit, and had better go out as a governess or a circus rider, and so
conform to the dictates of Nature.
 “MAKING THE RUNNING.”

“I used to watch the game pretty closely, because I had staked my

professional reputation on the financial success of the girl-preacher,
and I didn’t want her to marry and so put an end to her attractiveness
with the general public. I didn’t really think that there was much
danger of any such thing, for Miss Marsh seemed to be entirely
absorbed in her work, and her salary was exceptionally large. Still,
you can never tell when a woman will break the very best
engagement, and that is one reason why they will never succeed as
preachers. You pay a man a good salary, and he will never find that
Providence calls him elsewhere, unless, of course, he has a very
much better offer; but a woman-preacher is capable of throwing up a
first-class salary because she don’t like the color of a deacon’s hair,
or because the upholstery of the pulpit doesn’t match with her
complexion.
“That winter we had a very heavy fall of snow, and after that the
sleighing was magnificent for the next month or two. The cashier
made the most of it by taking the minister out sleigh-riding two or
three times a week. The lawyer did not seem to care anything about
it, even when he saw the minister whirling along the road behind the
best pair of horses in the town, with the cashier by her side and her
lap full of caramels. But one Saturday afternoon, when he knew that
the cashier would be detained at the bank until very late—the
president having just skipped to Canada, and it being necessary to
ascertain the amount of the deficit without delay—the lawyer hired a
sleigh and called for the minister. Although she was preparing her
next day’s sermon by committing to memory a lot of Shelley’s poetry,
she dropped Shelley and had on her best hat and was wrapped in
the buffalo robe by the side of the lawyer in less than half an hour
after she had told him that she positively wouldn’t keep him waiting
three minutes.
 “CALLED FOR THE MINISTER.”

“You remember what I said about the peculiar pattern of her ear-
rings. It is through those ear-rings that the Methodist church lost its
minister, and I became convinced that a female ministry is not a
good thing to tie to. Miss Marsh and her admirer were driving quietly
along and enjoying themselves in a perfectly respectable way, when
one runner of the sleigh went over a good-sized log that had
dropped from somebody’s load of wood and had been left in the
road. The sleigh didn’t quite upset, but Miss Marsh was thrown
against the lawyer with a shock for which she apologized, and he
thanked her. But it happened that one of her ear-rings caught in the
lawyer’s beard, and was so twisted up with it that it was impossible
to disentangle it. Unless Miss Marsh was ready to drag about half
her companion’s heard out by the roots, there was nothing to be
done except for her to sit with her cheek close against his until some
third person could manage to disentangle the ear-ring. While she
was in this painful position—at least she said at the time that it was
painful—a sleigh containing two of her deacons and a prominent
Baptist drove by. Miss Marsh saw them and saw the horrified
expression on their faces. She knew quick enough that her
usefulness as a minister in New Berlinopolisville was at an end and
that there was going to be a terrible scandal. So, being a woman,
she burst into tears and said that she wished she were dead.
“But the lawyer was equal to the occasion. He told her that there
was nothing left to be done except for them to be married and
disentangled at the next town. Then he would take her on a long
wedding-trip, stopping at Chicago to buy some clothes, and that if
she so wished they would afterward settle in some other town,
instead of coming back to New Berlinopolisville. Of course she said
that the proposal was not to be thought of for a moment, and of
course she accepted it within the next ten minutes. They drove to the
house of the nearest minister, and the minister’s wife disentangled
them, to save time, while the minister was engaged in marrying
them.
“That was the end of the experiment of playing a woman-preacher
on the boards of the First Methodist Church of Berlinopolisville.
Everybody was content to call a man in the place of Miss Marsh, and
everybody agreed to blame me for the failure of the experiment. I
don’t know whether the lawyer ever had any reason to regret his
marriage or not, but when I saw his wife at a fancy dress hall at
Chicago, a year or two later, I could see that she was not sorry that
she had given up the ministry. Ever since that time I have been
opposed to women-preachers, and consider a woman in the pulpit
as much out of place as a deacon in the ballet.”
 A MYSTERY.
“Do I believe in spiritualism?” repeated the Colonel. “Well, you
wouldn’t ask me that question if you knew that I had been in the
business myself. I once ran a ‘Grand Spiritual Combination Show.’ I
had three first-class mediums, who did everything, from knocking on
a table to materializing Napoleon, or Washington, or any of your
dead friends. It was a good business while it lasted, but,
unfortunately, we showed one night in a Texas town before a lot of
cowboys. One of them brought his lasso under his coat, and when
the ghost of William Penn appeared the cowboy lassoed him and
hauled him in, hand over hand, for further investigation. The
language William Penn used drove all the ladies out of the place,
and his want of judgment in tackling the cowboy cost him all his front
teeth. I and the other mediums and the doorkeeper had to take a
hand in the manifestation, and the result was that the whole
Combination was locked up over-night, and the fines that we had to
pay made me tired of spiritualism.
“No, sir! I don’t believe in spiritualism, but for all that there are
curious things in the world. Why is it that if a man’s name is Charles
G. Haseltine he will lose his right leg in a railway accident? The
police some years ago wanted a Charles G. Haseltine with a wooden
right leg in the State of Massachusetts, and they found no less than
five Charles G. Haseltines, and every one of them had lost his right
leg in a railway accident. What makes it all the more curious is that
they were no relation to one another, and not one of them had ever
heard of the existence of the others. Then, will someone tell me what
is the connection between darkies and chickens? I say ‘darkies’
instead of ‘niggers’ because I had a colored regiment on my right
flank at the battle of Corinth, and that night I swore I would never say
‘nigger’ again. However, that don’t concern you. What I meant to say
was that there is a connection between darkies and chickens which
nobody has ever yet explained. Of course no darky can resist the
temptation to steal a chicken. Everybody knows that. Why, I knew a
colored minister who was as honest a man as the sun ever tried to
tan—and failed—and I have known him to preach a sermon with a
chicken that he had lifted on his way to meeting shoved up under his
vest. He wouldn’t have stolen a dollar bill if he was starving, but he
would steal every chicken that he could lay his hands on, no matter if
his own chicken-house was crowded with chickens. It’s in the blood
—or the skin—and no darky can help it.
“What was I going to say about the connection between darkies
and chickens? I had very nearly forgotten it. This was what I was
referring to. A chicken will draw a darky just as a dead sheep will
draw vultures in Egypt, though there may have been no vultures
within twenty miles when the sheep was killed. You may be living in a
town where there isn’t a single darky within ten miles, but if you put
up a chicken-house and stock it there will be darkies in the town
within twenty-four hours, and just so long as your chicken-house has
a chicken in it fresh darkies will continue to arrive from all sections of
the country. This beats any trick that I ever saw a spiritual medium
perform, and I can’t see the explanation of it. You may say that some
one carries word to the darkies that there is a new chicken-house
waiting to be visited, but the answer to this is that it isn’t true. My
own idea is that it is a matter of instinct. When you carry a cat twenty
miles away from home in a bag and let her out, we all know that her
instinct will show her the way home again before you can get there
yourself. Just in the same way instinct will draw a darky to a chicken-
house he has never seen or heard of. You’ll say that to talk about
instinct doesn’t explain the matter. That is true enough, but it makes
you feel as if you had struck the trail, which is some satisfaction at
any rate. So far as I can see, that is about all that scientific theories
ever do.
 “PREACH A SERMON WITH A CHICKEN UNDER HIS VEST.”

“If you care to listen, I’ll tell you what happened within my
knowledge in connection with darkies and chickens. I was located a
little after the war in the town of South Constantinople, in the western
part of Illinois, and my next-door neighbor was Colonel Ephraim J.
Hickox, who commanded the 95th Rhode Island Regiment. The town
was a growing place, and it had the peculiarity that there wasn’t a
darky in it. The nearest one lived over at West Damascus, seven
miles away, and there was only two of him—he and his wife. Another
curious thing about the place was the scarcity of labor. There weren’t
above a dozen Irishmen in the place, and they wouldn’t touch a
spade or a hoe under three dollars a day, and wouldn’t work more
than four days in a week. You see, a certain amount of digging and
gardening had to be done, and there wasn’t anybody to do it except
these Irishmen, so they naturally made a good thing of it, working
half the time and holding meetings for the redemption of Ireland the
rest of the time in the bar-room of the International Hotel.
“One day Colonel Ephraim, as I always used to call him, wanted to
drain his pasture lot, and he hired the Irishmen to dig a ditch about a
quarter of a mile long. They would dig for a day, and then they would
knock off and attend to suffering Ireland, till Ephraim, who was a
quick-tempered man, was kept in a chronic state of rage. He had no
notion of going into politics, so he didn’t care a straw what the
Irishmen thought of him, and used to talk to them as free as if they
couldn’t vote. Why, he actually refused to subscribe to a dynamite
fund and for a gold crown to be presented to Mr. Gladstone, and you
can judge how popular he was in Irish circles. I used to go down to
Ephraim’s pasture every once in a while to see how his ditch was
getting along, and one afternoon I found the whole lot of Irishmen
lying on the grass smoking instead of working, and Ephraim in the
very act of discharging them.
“‘Perhaps it’s “nagurs” that you’d be preferring,’ said one of the
men, as they picked themselves up and made ready to leave.
“‘You bet it is,’ said Ephraim, ‘and, what’s more, I’ll have that ditch
finished by darkies before the week is out.’ This seemed to amuse
the Irishmen, for they went away in good spirits, in spite of the
language that had been hove at them, and it amused me too, for I
knew that there were no darkies to be had, no matter what wages a
man might be willing to pay. I said as much to Ephraim, who, instead
of taking it kindly, grew madder than ever, and said, ‘Colonel! I’ll bet
you fifty dollars that I’ll have that ditch finished by darkies inside of
four days, and that they’ll do all the digging without charging me a
dollar.’
“‘If you’re going to send over into Kentucky and import negro
labor,’ said I, ‘you can do it, and get your ditch dug, but you’ll have to
pay either the darkies or the contractor who furnishes them.’
“‘I promise you not to pay a dollar to anybody, contractor or nigger.
And I won’t ask anybody to send me a single man. What I’m betting
on is that the darkies will come to my place of their own accord and
work for nothing. Are you going to take the bet or ain’t you?’
“I didn’t hesitate any longer, but I took the bet, thinking that
Ephraim’s mind was failing, and that it was a Christian duty in his
friends to see that if he did fool away his money, it should go into
their pockets instead of the pockets of outsiders. But, as you will see,
Ephraim didn’t lose that fifty dollars.
“Early the next morning Ephraim had a couple of masons
employed in turning his brick smoke-house into a chicken-house,
and he had two dozen chickens with their legs tied lying on the grass
waiting for the chicken-house to be finished. The masons broke a
hole through the side of the house and lined it with steel rods about
four feet long, which Ephraim had bought to use in some
experiments in gun-making that he was always working at. The rods
were set in a circle which was about a foot and a half wide at one
end and tapered to about four inches at the other end. The
arrangement was just like the wire entrance to a mouse-trap, of the
sort that is meant to catch mice alive and never does it. It was
nothing less than a darky-trap, although Ephraim pretended that it
was a combined ventilator and front door for the chickens. The
masons, so far as I could judge, thought that Ephraim’s mind was
going fast, and I made up my mind that it would be a sin to let the
man bet with anybody who would be disposed to take advantage of
his infirmity.