129,911 research outputs found
Defining Procedures in Early Computing Education
From the early years of educational programming researchers considered procedural abstraction a key instrument of computational thinking and tried to understand the cognitive difficulties encountered through this concept. Defining procedures is promoted in renewed computing curricula in several countries. And yet, it is rarely acknowledged by more recent educational research. In this paper, we consider the fact that the delayed implementation of a mechanism for building procedures (known as definitions) within Scratch, a widely used programming environment for children, may have negatively impacted the focus within curricular content on this powerful idea. In our research, which is a part of a broader ScratchMaths (SM) research project, we set out to explore which factors play a role in upper primary pupils understanding and utilizing the concept of defining procedures as a common and inherent instrument of their programming. We present our observations from the project design schools and demonstrate how they guided the development of our SM pedagogic strategy for definitions
21st Century Simulation: Exploiting High Performance Computing and Data Analysis
This paper identifies, defines, and analyzes the limitations imposed on Modeling and Simulation by outmoded
paradigms in computer utilization and data analysis. The authors then discuss two emerging capabilities to
overcome these limitations: High Performance Parallel Computing and Advanced Data Analysis. First, parallel
computing, in supercomputers and Linux clusters, has proven effective by providing users an advantage in
computing power. This has been characterized as a ten-year lead over the use of single-processor computers.
Second, advanced data analysis techniques are both necessitated and enabled by this leap in computing power.
JFCOM's JESPP project is one of the few simulation initiatives to effectively embrace these concepts. The
challenges facing the defense analyst today have grown to include the need to consider operations among non-combatant
populations, to focus on impacts to civilian infrastructure, to differentiate combatants from non-combatants,
and to understand non-linear, asymmetric warfare. These requirements stretch both current
computational techniques and data analysis methodologies. In this paper, documented examples and potential
solutions will be advanced. The authors discuss the paths to successful implementation based on their experience.
Reviewed technologies include parallel computing, cluster computing, grid computing, data logging, OpsResearch,
database advances, data mining, evolutionary computing, genetic algorithms, and Monte Carlo sensitivity analyses.
The modeling and simulation community has significant potential to provide more opportunities for training and
analysis. Simulations must include increasingly sophisticated environments, better emulations of foes, and more
realistic civilian populations. Overcoming the implementation challenges will produce dramatically better insights,
for trainees and analysts. High Performance Parallel Computing and Advanced Data Analysis promise increased
understanding of future vulnerabilities to help avoid unneeded mission failures and unacceptable personnel losses.
The authors set forth road maps for rapid prototyping and adoption of advanced capabilities. They discuss the
beneficial impact of embracing these technologies, as well as risk mitigation required to ensure success
BaBar - A Community Web Site in an Organizational Setting
The BABAR Web site was established in 1993 at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center (SLAC) to support the BABAR experiment, to report its results, and to
facilitate communication among its scientific and engineering collaborators,
currently numbering about 600 individuals from 75 collaborating institutions in
10 countries. The BABAR Web site is, therefore, a community Web site. At the
same time it is hosted at SLAC and funded by agencies that demand adherence to
policies decided under different priorities. Additionally, the BABAR Web
administrators deal with the problems that arise during the course of managing
users, content, policies, standards, and changing technologies. Desired
solutions to some of these problems may be incompatible with the overall
administration of the SLAC Web sites and/or the SLAC policies and concerns.
There are thus different perspectives of the same Web site and differing
expectations in segments of the SLAC population which act as constraints and
challenges in any review or re-engineering activities. Web Engineering, which
post-dates the BABAR Web, has aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of
all aspects of Web development. This paper reports on the first part of a
recent review of application of Web Engineering methods to the BABAR Web site,
which has led to explicit user and information models of the BABAR community
and how SLAC and the BABAR community relate and react to each other. The paper
identifies the issues of a community Web site in a hierarchical,
semi-governmental sector and formulates a strategy for periodic reviews of
BABAR and similar sites.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics
(CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 8 pages, PDF, PSN MONT00
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
West Thames College: report from the Inspectorate (FEFC inspection report; 31/95 and 14/99)
Comprises two Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) inspection reports for the periods 1994-95 and 1998-99
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Optimising multi-disciplinary contributions for the smart clothing development process
This research aims to introduce a strategic approach to overcome the creative boundaries and optimize multidisciplinary contributions in Smart Clothing development, since the former research results revealed that these issues are key to achieving fully integrated Smart Clothes. Therefore, this paper examines collaborative projects that are shown to break through the creative boundary and integrate multidisciplinary contributions, and identifies how individual designers overcome their creative constraints and collaborate with others, in order to identify a practical method. The research result indicates that a clear description of Smart Clothing’s context will provide a new framework for the developers to work on
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