15,258 research outputs found
Pirate plunder: game-based computational thinking using scratch blocks
Policy makers worldwide argue that children should be taught how technology works, and that the ‘computational thinking’ skills developed through programming are useful in a wider context. This is causing an increased focus on computer science in primary and secondary education.
Block-based programming tools, like Scratch, have become ubiquitous in primary education (5 to 11-years-old) throughout the UK. However, Scratch users often struggle to detect and correct ‘code smells’ (bad programming practices) such as duplicated blocks and large scripts, which can lead to programs that are difficult to understand. These ‘smells’ are caused by a lack of abstraction and decomposition in programs; skills that play a key role in computational thinking. In Scratch, repeats (loops), custom blocks (procedures) and clones (instances) can be used to correct these smells. Yet, custom blocks and clones are rarely taught to children under 11-years-old.
We describe the design of a novel educational block-based programming game, Pirate Plunder, which aims to teach these skills to children aged 9-11. Players use Scratch blocks to navigate around a grid, collect items and interact with obstacles. Blocks are explained in ‘tutorials’; the player then completes a series of ‘challenges’ before attempting the next tutorial. A set of Scratch blocks, including repeats, custom blocks and clones, are introduced in a linear difficulty progression. There are two versions of Pirate Plunder; one that uses a debugging-first approach, where the player is given a program that is incomplete or incorrect, and one where each level begins with an empty program.
The game design has been developed through iterative playtesting. The observations made during this process have influenced key design decisions such as Scratch integration, difficulty progression and reward system. In future, we will evaluate Pirate Plunder against a traditional Scratch curriculum and compare the debugging-first and non-debugging versions in a series of studies
A Multi-Gene Genetic Programming Application for Predicting Students Failure at School
Several efforts to predict student failure rate (SFR) at school accurately
still remains a core problem area faced by many in the educational sector. The
procedure for forecasting SFR are rigid and most often times require data
scaling or conversion into binary form such as is the case of the logistic
model which may lead to lose of information and effect size attenuation. Also,
the high number of factors, incomplete and unbalanced dataset, and black boxing
issues as in Artificial Neural Networks and Fuzzy logic systems exposes the
need for more efficient tools. Currently the application of Genetic Programming
(GP) holds great promises and has produced tremendous positive results in
different sectors. In this regard, this study developed GPSFARPS, a software
application to provide a robust solution to the prediction of SFR using an
evolutionary algorithm known as multi-gene genetic programming. The approach is
validated by feeding a testing data set to the evolved GP models. Result
obtained from GPSFARPS simulations show its unique ability to evolve a suitable
failure rate expression with a fast convergence at 30 generations from a
maximum specified generation of 500. The multi-gene system was also able to
minimize the evolved model expression and accurately predict student failure
rate using a subset of the original expressionComment: 14 pages, 9 figures, Journal paper. arXiv admin note: text overlap
with arXiv:1403.0623 by other author
A Software Radio Challenge Accelerating Education and Innovation in Wireless Communications
This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents our methodology and tools for
introducing competition in the electrical engineering curriculum to accelerate
education and innovation in wireless communications. Software radio or
software-defined radio (SDR) enables wireless technology, systems and standards
education where the student acts as the radio developer or engineer. This is
still a huge endeavor because of the complexity of current wireless systems and
the diverse student backgrounds. We suggest creating a competition among
student teams to potentiate creativity while leveraging the SDR development
methodology and open-source tools to facilitate cooperation. The proposed
student challenge follows the European UEFA Champions League format, which
includes a qualification phase followed by the elimination round or playoffs.
The students are tasked to build an SDR transmitter and receiver following the
guidelines of the long-term evolution standard. The metric is system
performance. After completing this course, the students will be able to (1)
analyze alternative radio design options and argue about their benefits and
drawbacks and (2) contribute to the evolution of wireless standards. We discuss
our experiences and lessons learned with particular focus on the suitability of
the proposed teaching and evaluation methodology and conclude that competition
in the electrical engineering classroom can spur innovation.Comment: Frontiers in Education 2018 (FIE 2018
Computational Thinking in Education: Where does it fit? A systematic literary review
Computational Thinking (CT) has been described as an essential skill which everyone should learn and can therefore include in their skill set. Seymour Papert is credited as concretising Computational Thinking in 1980 but since Wing popularised the term in 2006 and brought it to the international community's attention, more and more research has been conducted on CT in education. The aim of this systematic literary review is to give educators and education researchers an overview of what work has been carried out in the domain, as well as potential gaps and opportunities that still exist. Overall it was found in this review that, although there is a lot of work currently being done around the world in many different educational contexts, the work relating to CT is still in its infancy. Along with the need to create an agreed-upon definition of CT lots of countries are still in the process of, or have not yet started, introducing CT into curriculums in all levels of education. It was also found that Computer Science/Computing, which could be the most obvious place to teach CT, has yet to become a mainstream subject in some countries, although this is improving. Of encouragement to educators is the wealth of tools and resources being developed to help teach CT as well as more and more work relating to curriculum development. For those teachers looking to incorporate CT into their schools or classes then there are bountiful options which include programming, hands-on exercises and more. The need for more detailed lesson plans and curriculum structure however, is something that could be of benefit to teachers
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