Enhancing K-12 Education with g Alice

Enhancing K‐12 Education with g
Alice Programming Adventures
Susan Rodger
Duke University
Co‐authors
Maggie Lana Jenna
Maggie
Lana
Jenna
Bashford
Dyck
Hayes
ITiCSE 2010
A k
Ankara, Turkey
T k
June 30, 2010
www cs duke edu/csed/alice
www.cs.duke.edu/csed/alice
Supported by the National Science Foundation Collaborative Grant ESI‐0624642, NSF Supplement DRL‐0826661, a CRA distributed mentor award, and an IBM Faculty Award from International Business Machines.
Outline
• Introduction
Introduction and Motivation for Adventures and Motivation for Adventures
in Alice Programming
• Previous Work Previous Work
• Materials for Integrating Alice into K‐12
– Computer Science concepts
Computer Science concepts
– Animation and Special Effects
– Tutorials, template worlds and classes
Tutorials, template worlds and classes
– Discipline Specific
• Conclusion and Future Work
Conclusion and Future Work
Liz Deborah Henry
Liz
Deborah
Henry
Liang Nelson Qin
There are few women in computer science
• Many
Many reports indicate the low number of reports indicate the low number of
women in computer science – 56% of Advanced Placement (AP) test takers are ( )
female
– Yet only 15% of Computer Science AP test takers are female
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– There are low numbers of women at all levels of Th
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the pipeline in computer science from high school through college to graduate school to professors.
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Many students don’t know what Computer Science is when they come to college!
to college!
• Not
Not taught in middle schools and many high taught in middle schools and many high
schools
• What they think it is:
Wh h
hi k i i
How do we Introduce and Teach Science?
• Physics –
Physics experiments
• Chemistry ‐
y experiments
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– “keyboarding, spread sheets, word processing….”
• VERY EXCITING ……… NOT!
If taught, how do we introduce CS?
If taught, how do we introduce CS?
• Biology ‐ experiments
Why Can’t the Introduction of Computer Science be exciting?
• Programming –
Programming it
it’ss always been
always been
– Hands‐on
– Interactive
– Frustrating!
• What’s missing?
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– Not Getting Exciting Results • Easily, right away
• Write a calculator
Wi
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• Write a banking program
• Etc…
– Too textual‐based, including errors
T t t l b d i l di
– Not appealing to today’s kids in which media and technology are a part of their life!
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Bring on Alice Virtual Worlds!
Bring on Alice Virtual Worlds!
• Alice is
–
–
–
–
–
Hands‐on!
Interactive!
Vi l!
Visual!
Less Error prone
Exciting Results right away!
c g esu s g a ay
• Alice has the potential to excite kids about computer science in the same way that i
i h
h
experiments excite kids about chemistry, physics and biology!
gy
CompSci 4 Alice Class at Duke
CompSci 4 –
Alice Class at Duke
• Full semester course on Alice Ali
for non‐majors
• Lecture for 10‐
Lecture for 10
20 minutes
Students work
• Students work on problem with computers i
in pairs
i
• Bring students back together
back together Alice Programming Language
• Create interactive stories or games
• Learn programming in an easy way, drag‐
and‐drop your code
• Problem solving with visual feedback
P bl
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ith i l f db k
– Logical thinking
• Along
Along the way, learn computer science the way learn computer science
concepts:
– Loops, classes, methods, functions, arrays
oops, classes, methods, functions, arrays
• Developed by Randy Pausch and the Alice Team, CMU
• Alice is FREE: www.alice.org
Success ‐ Alice attracts diverse group
• At Duke At D ke
– CompSci 4 Spring 2005
• 22 preregister, 30 enroll (12 female + 3 African Amer.)
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(
)
– CompSci 4 Fall 2005
• 20 preregister, 31 enroll (17 female – 1 African Amer.)
– CompSci 4 Fall 2006 –
4 Fall 2006 – 2 sections
2 sections
• 64 students, 33 female, 7 African Amer.
– CompSci 4 Fall 2007 – 2 sections • 84 students ‐ > 50% female
– CompSci 4 Fall 2008 – 2 sections
• 100 students ‐ > 50% female
– Same for Spring 2009, Fall 2009…
– Advertised in school paper • picture of ice skater
picture of ice skater
• Web site of animations
Success ‐ Alice Excites 4th‐6th Grade Gi l
Girls
• Duke Femmes Event, April 07
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4 • 60 girls –
groups of 15
Taught them
• Taught them Alice for an hour
• Handout to take Handout to take
home
Event again in
• Event again in 2008 ,2009, 2010
Adventures in Alice Programming
Adventures in Alice Programming
• Integrate Alice into high school and middle schools by training teachers
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• Six sites in U.S.:
Durham, NC
Denver, CO
Charleston, SC
Oxford, MS
Virginia Beach, VA
San Jose, CA
• Durham site focuses on Middle Schools in NC
www.cs.duke.edu/csed/alice/aliceInSchools
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Duke: Adventures in Alice site
• Summer 2008 and 2009
– 1‐week
1 week and 3
and 3‐week
week Teacher Teacher
workshops
• Over 130 teachers, mostly middle ,
y
school, some high school
• Only a few had ever programmed b f
before
• Taught them Alice, Developed Lesson Plans
– 1‐week middle school camps
• Taught Alice
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• Lots of time to build their own Alice worlds
Targetting all subject teachers
all subject teachers
How to Use Alice in Middle/High Schools
• Subject teachers using Alice
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Language Arts
Language
Arts
Mathematics
Science
History
Foreign Language
Music Art
Music, Art
Media, Technology
Business
• Mostly Middle school, some Elementary, and some high school subject teachers (physics, chemistry etc)
chemistry, etc)
Free Materials ‐ Introductory Tutorials
Free Materials Introductory Tutorials
1. Simple, Short (15 min) tutorials to try p ,
(
)
y
Alice
–
Add an object, use built‐in methods
2 One hour starting tutorials
2.
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–
Writing methods, simple events, camera
3 Longer
3.
Longer starting tutorials if more starting tutorials if more
time/more detail (4 one‐hour parts)
–
–
–
More detailed on placement of objects, writing methods, events, camera control
Animating a skateboarder
Adding sound and images
Adding sound and images
• Teachers
– Examples in lecture
– Make interactive quizzes
Make interactive quizzes
– Make worlds on concepts for students to view • Students
St d t
– Projects (in place of a poster, a model) – To take or build quizzes
– To view and answer questions about a world
– Older students can do more with Alice.
Example: 4‐Part Starting Tutorial
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•
Many short tutorials on CS Topics
CS Topics
Functions Tutorial
using functions
f
– Programming Programming – sequential and sequential and “at
at the same time
the same time”
– Methods (teaching characters how to walk)
– Events (buttons and birds)
Events (buttons and birds)
– Looping
– Conditionals (making a choice)
Conditionals (making a choice)
– Functions (how tall are you)
– Lists (objects moving in unison)
Li t ( bj t
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i )
– Variables (timers/scores)
Other “Fun”
Other Fun Topics Blended in
Topics Blended in
Storyboards
Changing camera views
Scene changes and lighting
Scene changes and lighting
Fading in/out
Making Billboards
Making objects invisible and visible
• Sounds
• Glueing objects to others
•
•
•
•
•
•
Scene Change Class
includes all ground covers
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Scene Change Class (2) ‐
Tutorial Uses variables to save sky color
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Scene Change Class (3)
Scene Change Class (3)
How can Alice be used in K‐12?
How can Alice be used in K
12?
Example: Language Arts: Kitty Story
Example: Language Arts: Kitty Story
• Worlds
Worlds created from scratch created from scratch – discipline discipline
specific
• Quiz worlds
Quiz worlds
• Projects
Example: Science – Volcano Story
Math Example
Math Example
• Danica McKellar
Math Example
Improper Fractions Story
Math Example Rounding Numbers d
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Quiz Worlds
Quiz Worlds
• Tutorial to create a simple world
Tutorial to create a simple world
Have Created Several Quiz Templates
Have Created Several Quiz Templates
• Template
Template World World – Click on an object that Click on an object that
matches the sign
Quiz Worlds (2)
Quiz Worlds (2)
• Respond to questions
Respond to questions
English as Second Language Example
Built a template world
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English as Second Language (2)
You put the pictures in order
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English as Second Language (4)
Annotate each picture
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English as Second Language (3)
check to see if correct
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English as Second Language (5)
then the story plays
then the story plays
For another story, change list of pictures.
Other Quiz Templates
Other Quiz Templates
Alice used as Projects
Project: Historical Tour
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• Template
Template World World – Click on an object that is the Click on an object that is the
answer
• Template Class –
Template Class Quiz with Quiz with “ask
ask user
user” functions built in
Project: Book Report
Project: Book Report
Project: Pong Game
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Project: Adventure Game
Project: Adventure Game
Future Work
Future Work
• Running
Running one
one‐week
week and followup
and followup workshops workshops
this summer
• Continuing to work with teachers
Continuing to work with teachers
• Creating project worlds • One student focusing on math and spanish
• One student focusing on science –
g
biology and gy
chemistry
www.cs.duke.edu/csed/alice/aliceInSchools
Questions?
www.cs.duke.edu/alice/aliceInSchools
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