Thinking Fast and Slow in Computer Problem Solving

L

The Effects Of Applying Authentic Learning Strategies To Develop Computational Thinking Skills In Computer Literacy Students

This study attempts to determine if authentic learning strategies can be used to acquire knowledge of and increase motivation for computational thinking. Over 600 students enrolled in a computer literacy course participated in this study which involved completing a pretest, posttest and motivation survey. The students were divided into an experimental and control group based on class meeting day. The experimental group was given access to an authentic learning tool called COTHAULE. COTHAULE, which is an acronym that stands for Computational Thinking Authentic Learning Environment, is a website that was developed using a variety of technologies. The intellection behind COTHAULE was to take every-day experiences that could pertain to life in a college campus environment and merge them with computational thinking concepts and the learning objectives of a common computer literacy course. Examples of experiences were formed into five case studies each containing seven scenarios that read like a conversation taking place between students. The basic functionality of the tool was to load a video clip into the website for the student to watch for each scenario then present the student with an authentic learning activity and problem to solve. The authentic learning activities involved such topics as searching, sorting and filtering tables using software such as Microsoft Word and Excel and translating the activities into computational thinking concepts. A control group received a set of traditional textbook style online learning materials. A pretest and posttest was used to measure learning for each group. The study concluded that although there was a significant increase in learning between the pretest and posttest for both groups, there was no significant difference in learning by one group over the other group. The study also concluded that the motivation of the control group was significantly greater than the experimental group. There were some gaps in the COTHAULE tool as it compares to the expectations of an authentic learning environment and should be revisited. Improvements to the overall design of COTHAULE should also be considered

Brain Breaks in Computer Science

The purpose of this action research study was to determine the effectiveness of brain breaks on behavioral engagement in middle school computer science classrooms. The two questions that drove this action research study were: should brain breaks be used in a middle school computer science classroom and do brain breaks help middle school computer science students stay engaged. This action research study was conducted in two middle school computer science classrooms in a Northeast Iowa school. Quantitative data was collected on behavioral engagement in both classes for 15 days which indicated the percentage of students behaviorally engaged and disengaged at three-time intervals each day. A qualitative analysis was completed with Google Form survey data that was given to the participants in each of the two classes

The Case for Improving U.S. Computer Science Education

Despite the growing use of computers and software in every facet of our economy, not until recently has computer science education begun to gain traction in American school systems. The current focus on improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the U.S. school system has disregarded differences within STEM fields. Indeed, the most important STEM field for a modern economy is not only one that is not represented by its own initial in "STEM" but also the field with the fewest number of high school students taking its classes and by far has the most room for improvement—computer science

2023-2024 Boise State University Undergraduate Catalog

This catalog is primarily for and directed at students. However, it serves many audiences, such as high school counselors, academic advisors, and the public. In this catalog you will find an overview of Boise State University and information on admission, registration, grades, tuition and fees, financial aid, housing, student services, and other important policies and procedures. However, most of this catalog is devoted to describing the various programs and courses offered at Boise State

Computational thinking and online learning: A systematic literature review

This paper introduces research concerned with investigating how Computational Thinking and online learning can be successfully married to help empower secondary teachers to teach this subject. To aid this research, a systematic literature review was undertaken to investigate what is currently known in the academic literature on where Computational Thinking and online learning intersect. This paper presents the findings of this systematic literature review. It outlines the methodology used and presents the current data available in the literature on how Computational Thinking is taught online. Using a systematic process eight hundred articles were initially identified and then subsequently narrowed down to forty papers. These papers were analysed to answer the following two questions: 1. What are the current pedagogical approaches to teaching Computational Thinking online? 2. What were the categories of online learning observed in the teaching of Computational Thinking? Our findings show that a wide range of pedagogical approaches are used to teach Computational Thinking online, with the constructivist theory of learning being the most popular. The tools used to teach Computational Thinking were also varied, video game design, playing video games, competitions, and unplugged activities, to name a few. A significant finding was the dependency between the tool used and the definition of the term Computational Thinking. Computational Thinking lacks consensus on a definition, and thus the definition stated in the literature changed depending on the tool. By considering a significant body of research up to the present, our findings contribute to teachers, researchers and policy makers understanding of how computational thinking may be taught online at second level

2022-2023 Boise State University Undergraduate Catalog

This catalog is primarily for and directed at students. However, it serves many audiences, such as high school counselors, academic advisors, and the public. In this catalog you will find an overview of Boise State University and information on admission, registration, grades, tuition and fees, financial aid, housing, student services, and other important policies and procedures. However, most of this catalog is devoted to describing the various programs and courses offered at Boise State

2020-2021 Boise State University Undergraduate Catalog

This catalog is primarily for and directed at students. However, it serves many audiences, such as high school counselors, academic advisors, and the public. In this catalog you will find an overview of Boise State University and information on admission, registration, grades, tuition and fees, financial aid, housing, student services, and other important policies and procedures. However, most of this catalog is devoted to describing the various programs and courses offered at Boise State