1 / 32

Teaching Computer Concepts with Robots, Animation, and Multi-Media

Teaching Computer Concepts with Robots, Animation, and Multi-Media. Barbara Ericson Georgia Tech ericson@cc.gatech.edu http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/. There is a Shortage of CS Students. The number of CS majors has dropped 40% since 2001 Nationwide

shateque
Download Presentation

Teaching Computer Concepts with Robots, Animation, and Multi-Media

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Teaching Computer Concepts with Robots, Animation, and Multi-Media Barbara Ericson Georgia Tech ericson@cc.gatech.edu http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/

  2. There is a Shortage of CS Students • The number of CS majors has dropped 40% since 2001 • Nationwide • The percentage of women has droppedto about 15% • From a high of about 40% in the early 80s • Projections of 46% job growth over the next 10 years! • Microsoft currently has 5,000 unfilled jobs

  3. Why the Huge Drop in Students? • Myth #1 • All computing jobs are going overseas • Only about 2-3% have • There are actually more jobs now in this area than in 2001 • The US Labor Department predicts that computer software engineers and computer systems designers will be among the fastest growing occupations in 2002-2012

  4. Why the Huge Drop in Students? • Myth #2 • Only geeks do well in computing

  5. Who is in Computer Science? They all are!

  6. Why the Huge Drop in Students? • Myth #3 • You have to like to play computer games • Professionals in computing • Say that you should like: • Problem solving • Working with others in a team • Being creative

  7. Why the Huge Drop in Students? • Myth #4 • The job is boring! • Introductory classes are often boring • Students find the examples irrelevant, and tedious • Computer Science juniors are often surprised how creative it is • Once you are past the early classes • Example: Digital Video Special Effects

  8. Interesting, Creative, Lucrative Job • Money Magazine rated software engineer the #1 job in 2006 • Flexibility: pick your hours • Creativity: highest grade of any job • Growth 44,800 average job openings a year • Average Pay: $80,500 to 6 figures • Computer IT Analyst was #7

  9. Making Computing Interesting • Free software for creating animations and games using drag-and-drop programming • Free software for multi-media programming • in Python or Java • Robots • LEGO robots • PicoCrickets • Scratch Boards

  10. Scratch Video • Free software • from MIT • Used to create 2D animations and games • Drag-and-drop programming

  11. Sample Student Work

  12. What can you teach with Scratch? • variables • loops • conditionals • event-driven programming • message passing • complex Booleans (and, or, not) • geometry concepts

  13. Alice • Free software • from CMU • Used to create 3D animations and games • Drag-and-drop programming

  14. Sample Student Work

  15. What can you teach using Alice? • Basics of Object-Oriented Programming • Objects and Classes • Methods and Parameters • Sequential and parallel execution • Inheritance • Iteration (looping) • Conditionals • Recursion • Lists and list processing • Arrays • Algorithm design, implementation, and testing • Basics of Event-driven programming

  16. Future of Alice v3.0 • Adding Sims characters from EA • the best selling game of all time • Will be in Java • Can still do drag-and-drop • Beta by Dec 2008

  17. Media Computation • Teaching computing concepts using programs that manipulate media • Iteration as a way to modify all pixels in a picture to negate the picture • Conditionals as a way to remove red eye from a picture or to do chromakey • Covers CS1 and CS2 topics • Developed at Georgia Tech • Can use Python or Java

  18. /** * Method to negate the picture */ public void negate() { Pixel[] pixelArray = this.getPixels(); Pixel pixelObj = null; int redValue, blueValue, greenValue = 0; // loop through all the pixels for (int i = 0; i < pixelArray.length; i++) { // get the current pixel pixelObj = pixelArray[i]; // get the values redValue = pixelObj.getRed(); greenValue = pixelObj.getGreen(); blueValue = pixelObj.getBlue(); // set the pixel's color pixelObj.setColor( new Color(255 - redValue, 255 - greenValue, 255 - blueValue)); } } Negate Method in Java

  19. Negate Method in Python def negative(picture): for px in getPixels(picture): red=getRed(px) green=getGreen(px) blue=getBlue(px) negColor=makeColor(255-red,255- green,255-blue) setColor(px,negColor)

  20. What can you teach using Media Computation? • CS1 (AP CS A) or CS2 (AB CS AB) content: • Objects and Classes • Methods and Parameters • Inheritance • Interfaces • Iteration (looping) • Conditionals • Recursion • Lists and list processing • Arrays • Algorithm design, implementation, and testing • Software engineering concepts • Data Structures

  21. Greenfoot • Free software from the University of Kent • Use to create 2D simulations and games in Java • Can run GridWorld in it • Don't have to stick to a grid • Runs on top of BlueJ

  22. Greenfoot Scenarios

  23. What can you teach with Greenfoot? • CS1 (AP CS A) and CS2 (AP CS AB) content • Simulations • Key event handling • Object-oriented programming • objects, classes, inheritance, polymorphism • Java

  24. LEGO Mindstorms NXT

  25. LEGO Mindstorms RIS 2.0 • A kit for creating and programming robots built with LEGOs

  26. $250 or with software for $279 431 elements 3 motors (with built-in rotation sensors) Storage bin with two sorting trays 2 touch sensors, 1 light sensor, 1 sound sensor, 1 ultrasonic sensor, 3 lamps Comes with rechargeable battery $200 for team challenge set software separate for $69 717 elements 2 motors (rotation sensors are extra) Have to buy sorting trays 2 touch sensors, 1 light sensor Mindstorms NXT vs RIS

  27. What can you teach with LEGO Robots? • Procedural programming • variables • loops • conditionals • creating your own blocks (functions or methods) • parameters • debugging • testing

  28. PicoCrickets • Arts and Crafts kit for the digital age • Based on research at MIT • on programmable bricks • same origin as LEGO Mindstorms robots • Sells for $250

  29. Ideas for Cricket Projects

  30. What can you teach with Crickets? • Loops • Conditionals • Variables • Input and output • Problem solving • Testing • Multiple threading

  31. Scratch Board • Board to add input to Scratch programs • light sensor • touch button • sound sensor • resistance sensors • slider • Costs $25 a board • plus $5 shipping per order

  32. Computing Resources • Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu • Alice http://www.alice.org • Media Computation • http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/mediaComp-teach • Greenfoot http://www.greenfoot.org • LEGO Mindstorms • http://www.lego.com/eng/education/mindstorms/ • PicoCrickets http://www.picocricket.com/ • Lending Libraries at Georgia Tech • http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/500 • Teacher workshops at Georgia Tech • http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/ • Barb Ericson ericson@cc.gatech.edu

More Related