Developing Science Inquiry Skills in Early Childhood Through Coding Games

The 21st century demands education to equip students with academic knowledge and additional skills, such as innovative, productive, reasoning, programming, data literacy, problem-solving, and critical thinking to face the rapid world changes. This study aims to develop science inquiry skills from early childhood to support children in mastering skills needed in the 21st century. This research design is descriptive qualitative. Data was collected from 16 preschools by observations, interviews, and documentation. Researchers used NVivo software for data management and analysis. NVivo is a software application designed to assist researchers in organizing, analyzing, and visualizing qualitative data. The research results reveal that coding games can develop 7 primary science inquiry skills: arguing based on existing evidence, identifying problems, analyzing and interpreting data, evaluating and communicating, planning and conducting investigations, asking questions, and constructing explanations. This research suggests that more preschools carry out coding games in the learning process because coding games can develop children's science inquiry skills, which will be useful in children’s future careers.