Cognitive Demand of Integrated Tasks

Cognitive demand has been extensively studied in the context of mathematics tasks and describes the intensity of intellectual work required by such tasks. It is useful to also consider this construct with respect to tasks involving coding and robotics. This study explores the cognitive demand of an integrated task as implemented in a classroom of students aged 9–10 years. The task involved coding a robot to move around the perimeter of rectangles whose area or perimeter was given without specific dimensions. Using frameworks for cognitive demand of mathematics and coding tasks, we coded three groups of students’ activity as they engaged in the task. We found students consistently engaged at the intended level of cognitive demand with respect to each discipline, and teacher interventions had the potential to change the level of cognitive demand at which students engaged in the task.