A Model for Improving Secondary CS Education

1. A Model for Improving Secondary CS Education Barbara Ericson, Mark Guzdial, Maureen Biggers ericson@cc.gatech.edu Georgia Institute of Technology

2. The Problem Nationwide • US Dept of Labor predicts the fastest growing occupations in 2002-2012 • Computer Software Engineers • Computer System Designers • Across the county the number of CS students is dropping (23%) • Some high schools are removing CS • Percentage of women is in teens • Several groups are underrepresented

3. The Problem in Georgia • Only about 50 schools of over 370 public schools offer AP CS • Many of these are private schools • Many students don’t take the exam • Many of the ones who do, don’t pass • AP CS moved to Technology and Career Education Department • Most of these teachers have no programming experience

4. One Solution • ICE: The Institute for Computing Education • Partnership between • Georgia Tech’s College of Computing • Georgia Department of Education • Announced June 2004 by Kathy Cox and Richard DeMillo

5. ICE History • November 2003 Diversity Advisory Board meeting • Nationally recognized professionals • From academia and business • Including the Director of Technology and Career Education in Georgia • Discussions of the problems with CS and how to solve them • Led to the formation of ICE

6. ICE Goals • Train more CS-AP teachers • Start by training teachers for an introductory course • even teachers with no experience • When ready train for CS-AP course • Increase the number and diversity of CS students • Interesting curriculum • Help with recruiting

7. Summer 2004 • 1 week AP workshop • 17 teachers attended • 2 week Programming and Systems Management Workshop • 30 teachers attended • Two 1 week summer camps for high school students • 30 students each week

8. AP Workshop

9. AP Workshop Development • Development Process • Visits to classrooms • Teacher surveys • Desired Content • Object-oriented principles • Case Study • Data Structures

10. AP Workshop Content • Short lectures (< 30 minutes) • Followed by hands-on activities • Role-playing • OO Analysis using CRC cards • UML class diagrams • Small programming assignments • Demonstrations of current research • Talk on encouraging diversity

11. Prog and Sys Workshop

12. Prog and Sys Development • Adapt curriculum from undergraduate course for non-majors at Tech • Taught in Python • Developed by Mark Guzdial • Teaches CS by manipulating media • Pictures, sounds, movies, text • The undergrad course has been successful • Better retention rates • Attracting more women and underrepresented groups • Getting people to transfer into CS • Students are taking a second CS course

13. Prog and Sys Content Delivery • Short Lectures (< 30 minutes) • Hands-on programming assignments • Role playing • Demos of current research • Robot dogs, aging in place • Talk on diversity • Student panel discussion

14. Prog and Sys Content • Introduction to object-oriented concepts • Keywords and operators • Primitive and object variables • Class and object methods • Arrays • Iteration (for and while loops) • Conditionals (if, if-else, if-else-if, and, or) • Graphical User Interfaces • Input/Output and Exceptions • Debugging

15. Goals for Content • Motivating • For students and teachers • Creative • Open-ended assignments • Authentic tasks • Start with what students use computers for (pictures, sounds, text, web, games)

16. Negate an Image

17. Mirroring

18. Rotation

19. Create a Collage

20. Remove ‘Red Eye’

21. Sepia-Tint

22. Chromakey

23. Teacher Collages

24. AP Results • Survey results • 94.12% felt more capable • 88.24% got ideas on what to teach • 94.12% got ideas on how to teach • 76.47% felt ready to teach in fall • Teachers want sample test questions and lesson plans • Some of the teachers are using the content

25. Prog and Sys Results • Survey results • 70.37% of teachers felt more capable • 96.30% got ideas on what to teach • 88.89% got ideas on how to teach • 44.44% felt ready to teach in fall • Teachers with no experience wanted a slower pace • Some of the teachers are using the content

26. Quotes • I didn’t want to take this workshop. I thought it would be boring and too math-based, but I am having fun. • My kids won’t believe that I am programming for fun. • This was the best (non-college credit) workshop I have ever taken. • The demos were awesome. I wish I had thought ahead & had a video camera to record demos.

27. Student Summer Camps • Two one-week summer camps for high school students • Not residential • 30 students in each camp • Content • Building a computer from parts • Computer engineering lab • Media manipulation in python • Demonstrations of research • Afternoon recreation

28. Student Summer Camps

29. Student Summer Camp

30. Student Summer Camp

31. What Else is ICE Doing? • Winter/Spring 2-day Workshops • AP Case Study • Teaching Java using Turtles, Robots, and Sound • Preparing for the AP Exam • AP Bowl Competition at Tech • April 16th • Developing a database of practice exam questions and answers • With explanations for all answers

32. Extending the Case Study

33. Using Turtles, Robots, and Sound to Teach Java • Use LEGO Robots and a visual programming language to introduce programming concepts • Use Turtle.java to control a virtual turtle using Java • Use Karel J. Robot to control a virtual robot using Java • Use Sound manipulations to teach programming concepts

34. LEGO Robots

35. RCX Code Visual Prog Language

36. Program a Turtle with Java

37. Program a Robot with Java

38. Using Sound to teach Java • Write programs to reverse a sound, append sounds, make a sound clip, and construct a MIDI song

39. Summer 2005 Workshops • 2 week Prog. and Sys. for beginners • No programming experience required • July 5-8th and 12-15th 2005 • 1 week intermediate Prog. and Sys. June 28-July 1st 2005 • Some programming experience required • 1 week College Board Endorsed AP July 18-22

40. ICE Resources • Collaborative Website • http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt • Mailing lists • gacs-teachers-psm@cc.gatech.edu • gacs-teachers-ap@cc.gatech.edu • Classroom visits • Barbara Ericson ericson@cc.gatech.edu • Field trips • Kristin Vadas vadas@cc.gatech.edu • Summer camps for students • http://www.cc.gatech.edu/campice/

41. Model for Others • Partnership between a Dept of Education and a University • Summer workshops and camps • With year-long follow-up for the teachers • Can grow new CS-AP Teachers • Even from teachers without much programming experience • Have teachers signing up for this summers AP workshop

42. Challenges • Funding • State provides some funding • For workshops • Georgia Tech would like more support • From NSF, corporations, or foundations • Managing Expectations • Don’t we have more AP teachers yet? • 3-5 year time frame for results