Test your Strategy: Graphical Construction of Strategies for Connect-Four

In this paper, we present the Connect IT tool, which uses a graphical flow graph-based representation to express strategies for playing the connect-four game. The tool allows to transfer complex knowledge about the connect-four game itself, simple algorithmic concepts, and modern high-level component-based modeling techniques from theoretical grounds into an inspiring and practical learning experience. For proving the feasibility of this approach, we applied the tool in a project with pupils, who had no experience in computer sciences at all. We demonstrate that solely based on intuition and knowledge about the connect-four game, the pupils were able to build really competitive strategies.