Blogs (19) >>
Thu 16 Mar 2023 15:45 - 16:10 at 715 - K-12: Pedagogical Innovations 1 Chair(s): Pooja Vashisth

We describe a new introductory CS curriculum for middle schools that focuses on teaching CS concepts using the instructions and rules for playing simple, physical games. We deliberately avoid the use of technology and, in particular, programming, and we focus on games, such as tossing a coin to see who goes first and playing Tic-Tac-Toe. We report on middle-school students’ understanding of basic CS concepts and their experiences with the curriculum.

After piloting the curriculum in 6th and 7th grade electives, we found that students liked the curriculum and using games, while some other students reported struggling with the technical content in the algorithm unit and vocabulary across the curriculum. Overall, students gained an understanding of abstraction and representation, and most students could define an algorithm and recognize a condition. However, they could not correctly organize the instructions of an algorithm. Our results suggest that the non-coding, game-based curriculum engaged middle school students in basic CS concepts at the middle school level, but we believe there is room for improvement in delivering technical content and vocabulary related to algorithms.

Thu 16 Mar

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15:45 - 17:00
K-12: Pedagogical Innovations 1Papers at 715
Chair(s): Pooja Vashisth York University
15:45
25m
Paper
Putting Computing on the Table: Using Physical Games to Teach Computer ScienceK12In-Person
Papers
Jennifer Parham-Mocello Oregon State University, Martin Erwig Oregon State University, Margaret Niess Oregon State University, Jason Weber Oregon State University, Madalyn Smith Oregon State University, Garrett Berliner Oregon State University
DOI
16:10
25m
Paper
BJC Sparks: A New Functional-First Middle School CS CurriculumK12In-Person
Papers
Dan Garcia UC Berkeley, Mary Fries EDC, Michael Ball UC Berkeley, Pamela Fox Microsoft, Deanna Gelosi University of Colorado Boulder, Lauren Mock University of California, Berkeley, Della Dastur Stratford San Jose Middle School, Dave Briccetti The Athenian School, Bob Kahn Brentwood School
DOI
16:35
25m
Paper
Virtual Summer Camp for High School Students with Disabilities -- An Experience ReportK12In-Person
Papers
Wei Wang University of Texas at San Antonio, USA, Kathy Ewoldt The University of Texas at San Antonio, Mimi Xie The University of Texas at San Antonio, Alberto Mestas-Nunez The University of Texas at San Antonio, Sean Soderman The University of Texas at San Antonio, Jeffrey Wang Keystone School
DOI