Meeting Minutes 10-26-10

Attended: Dr. Doerschuk, Daniel, and Valerie (taking minutes)

• We looked at the abstract for a paper we plan to submit to FIE
• Talked about our game idea and how we plan to make it cooperative (or at least have the option to)
• Stranded alien needs help, asks 'heroine/hero' for help
• Both travel to different worlds/rooms from hub to find pieces or clues to get ship working
• We can have independent stories on each day
• Should we develop graphic only and code only materials?
• Maybe graphic focused and code focused materials
• Logo!

Meeting Minutes: October 18, 2010

Lesson Plan development:
* Consider adding "user input" to lesson plan topics
* Each lesson should last about 1 to 2 hour
* Break down the work between the three of us; papers, design, and implementation.

Upcoming events:
* FIE (get a draft of a lit review ready send to Dr. Liu asap)
* Sigsce (still under consideration)
* Tapia
* Grace Hopper

10/11/10 Meeting Minutes

This meeting we went over topics for the lessons.
We've decided that our lessons will go as follows

1. Variable assignment and arithmetic operations
2. Control - repetition and selection
3. Data Structures - arrays and matrices
4. OOP - classes, objects, and methods
5. Challenge/Creative day

We also need to mention API and we could possibly do inheritance.

These lessons will add value to Greenfoot material since out materials will be topic based as opposed to tool based (like their book)

10-4 Meeting Minutes

Poster for ACET -

-flip logo

-add conference name, date and location

-handouts are not needed

-break up abstract

-post a pdf on the blog

FIE -

-survey, different title

-abstract

-intro - why gaming

-related - outreach - video game is one type

what other types are there.. ie. robotics

-contribution - survey of these 6

comparison, insights, conclusions

-Contact - Kevin Curry

1(785)864-7861

date - 12-15 Oct, 2011

ACET Conference is Thursday through Saturday, (Oct 7-9)

Next week:

FIE - title and outline

Check CSUnplugged for concepts

Special Reports

Meeting Minutes 09/27/10

Met with Dr. Doerschuk today

ACET
Complete poster by Friday to send to the print shop

FIE
A Literature Review was suggested
Need confirmation that our project meets FIE criteria

Tapia
Waiting for submission date

SIGSIC
November 1st due date for poster submission

Lesson Plan Focus
CS Concepts
* Sequence, Selection, Repetition, Objects
Peer programming
* Studies show that more students are retained if they work cooperatively
Co-operative play
* How can we implement this?

Theme - Cleaning up the Environment
Why?
* People want to feel as though they are doing something good.
* Satisfaction from putting family first or participating in disaster relief efforts
* Being able to do good is rewarding and self-motivating .

Update on some ideas

Poster
finish filling in bullet point by Wed.
Do we add references to poster?

Ideas about contacting schools:
For spring:
Mr. Herman - Hardin Jefferson
Ask if we can come in for his webmastering class

Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan Focus

9-20 Meeting Minutes

Met with Dr. Liu today.

ACET

1. Development Tools for Poster -

• Include when they were created

FIE

1. Continue work started with ACET poster, turn into (2-4 page?) Technical paper

• Survey for Game Deisgn - comprehensive, use previous ACET work
  

• Literature Review - How these were used in game developement

CS Concept Isolation-

1. Focus on CS concepts - match to Greenfoot programming techniques
2. Create chart - Column: Sessions, Rows: Objectives, Features, Questions.. Etc.
3. Find/create story or theme for game

Seminars (High School) - Dec

• West Brook, Hardin Jefferson, Etc..
  
• Ask about programming, web design, etc. classes, so students who might not have considered programming are introduced to it as well

Minicast (teacher resource workshop) -

• Perhaps provide a seminar for the teachers
• Including a questionaire of what they have problems with, questions about, would like to see

SIGCSE -

• Poster - Lesson plan design

Games -

1. Levels corresponding to the different concepts
2. Each level a different type of game

1. Need to look up the different types of games preferred by minorities and under represented
   

09-15 Meeting Minutes

Note: At every meeting, bring the time line and post meeting minutes to blog

Need to find: Any reporting to CREU?
For ACET Poster:
Kasey - Greenfoot, Scratch
Valerie - Game Maker, Alice
Daniel - XNA
Independent frameworks are ok, too.

For Environments in poster -
What is the environment?
Who developed it?
What level did they have in mind?
Also, pros, cons, and resources (forums, blogs, etc.)

Don't forget to use CREU & Lamar logo in poster


For Lessons:
Find topics to design lessons around
Check Greenfoot book for ideas
Start with objects (each lesson?)
Maybe about 10 topics about 1 hour each

Valerie - Introduction

Ha ha, well I guess we should introduce ourselves! I'll start!

My name is Valerie Juarez. I live in Sour Lake, Texas. I went to Hardin-Jefferson High School, and played in the high school band! I graduated in 2007, and I started at Lamar fall 2007, where I was awarded the Mirabeau Scholarship. I'm currently a Electrical Engineering and Computer Science double major. I'm currently the president of Lamar's chapter of the ACM.

In October 2007 I started working with INSPIRED (INcreasing Student Participation In REsearch Development). INSPIRED is a program funded by and NSF grant and directed by Dr. Peggy Doerschuk and Dr. Jane Liu. It's goal is to increase the participation of women and minorities in computing through research and outreach(http://cs.lamar.edu/inspired/). Through this program I have been exposed to many opportunities that have allowed me to gain experience and discover how vast the computing field is.

Because of INSPIRED I have come to appreciate and admire efforts to attract students into computing. I love the field that I am studying, and I know there are students who would love it too, but for many reasons, they may not consider computing as something they're interested or, even, something they are capable of doing. I think this project would be beneficial to those who are trying to show students that computing is something they should consider as a field of study and as a career.

I'm really excited about this project!! I expect to learn so much, and I hope to help create something that can be a benefit to this field!

-V

Current Plans

So, I just wanted to post an update on our current plans.

We want to submit a poster proposal for the Association for Computer Educators in Texas conference (http://acetweb.org/index.htm). We want to submit a literature review over teaching CS concepts through gaming. I have never done a literature review before, so I'm sure I'll learn a lot, and I know it will be good to learn for future research.

Papers to Read

These are some of the papers that we are currently looking at for background and references:

1. Computing as a Discipline
2. Constructivism in Computer Science Education
3. The Effect of High School Computer Science, Gender, and Work on Success in College Computer Science
4. Why Students with an Apparent Aptitude for Computer Science Don't Choose to Major in Computer Science
5. Strategic Directions in Computer Science Education
6. Predicting the Success of Freshmen in a Computer Science Major
7. Digital Game-Based Learning in High School Computer Science Education: Impact on Educational Effectiveness and Student Motivation
8. A Model for High School Computer Science Education: The Four Key Elements that Make It!

Java Gone Green: Adaptable Greenfoot Teaching Materials for Programming Fundamentals

Java Gone Green: Adaptable Greenfoot Teaching Materials for
Programming Fundamentals

Kathlyn Doss
Valerie Juarez
Daniel Vincent

Advisosr: Dr. Peggy Doerschuk and Dr. Jane Liu

Computer Science
Lamar University

Project description
In order to increase participation in Computer Science, we must first increase interest. One
way to increase interest is through hands on experiences in fun applications of computing.
Our project will focus on creating materials that teach programming fundamentals using
Greenfoot. Creating a game can quickly engage students, and Greenfoot will allow for us to
bridge graphic and code based development. We will create the shell of a game and teaching
materials to teach students how to add functionality to the game by using programming
fundamentals. The adaptability of our materials will come from how we develop our lesson
plans. We will develop our lessons as modules that can be used for different purposes, e.g. as
a one day seminar, a five day academy, or a one week bridge program. We will also create
content quizzes which will be used as assessment materials on the effectiveness of how the
lessons are taught.
Greefoot is a “combination between a framework for creating two-dimensional grid
assignments in Java and an integrated development environment.” [1] In Greenfoot’s
development environment, objects and classes can be represented graphically, and the
underlying java code can be accessed and manipulated as well. [1] This allows for a
combination of both graphical and code based development.
All participants in this project are members of INcreasing Student Participation in REsearch
Development (INSPIRED), which is a program at Lamar University that is funded by the
NSF. This program seeks to retain underrepresented students in the computing field by
exposing them to research and outreach at the undergraduate level. Outreach projects include
one day middle school and five day high school computing academies whose materials were
developed by members of INSPIRED. The academies are also coordinated and hosted by
INSPIRED members. Content questionnaires developed to assess the effectiveness of the
lessons are given before and after each lesson. [2][3][4] Daniel and Valerie have coordinated
and developed materials for the middle school and high school academies and have presented
posters in conferences about the materials, [6][7][8]. With this prior experience in material
development, we believe it is feasible for us to develop the teaching materials in the proposed
amount of time.
These academies use robots to teach participants programming concepts and fundamentals.
We plan to implement the five day Greenfoot materials instead of our robotics materials in
the academy. By using Greenfoot for game development instead of the robotics materials at
the academy, we make computing more accessible for students and teachers because
Greenfoot is a free download. If the students enjoy what they learn, they are free to download
and work on Greenfoot in their free time.

Questions to be Addressed

• Does completion of the modules increase knowledge?

We will develop content questionnaires that will be administered before and after each lesson
to determine what knowledge was gained during the lesson.

• Does completion of the modules increase interest?

At the beginning of the seminar or academy (in our case academy) we will administer
questionnaires that have the participants rate their interest. At the end of the seminar or
academy, the participants will rate their interests again, and we will calculate if their self
reported interest has changed
.
Methods and Research
We will be integrating our materials into INSPIRED’s five day high school academy.
INSPIRED already has the resources to host a five day academy. Also, the results from
previous academies will be studied. [2][3][4] We will develop materials for a five day
academy with lessons in specific topics that build upon the previous day, which is similar to
the way the content was developed in [5], and we will develop mini-lessons that can be used
in one day seminars. We will research other teaching materials to find the most successful
teaching strategies.
As a team of underrepresented individuals in computing, we will work on developing a game
that appeals to those groups. After the game is developed, each member of the team will be
assigned specific lessons to develop, and have biweekly meetings to review progress made
by the team. This will promote collaboration and independent study. Since the academy will
be held after the end of our school’s spring semester, we would like to request additional
summer funding. This would allow us to supervise the academies and to draft papers to
submit in conferences, such as SIGCSE and Frontiers in Education. At the end of the project
period, we expect to have a CD with the electronic resources (including template code,
demos, and examples of final projects) and a notebook with teaching resources, which
includes a user’s guide, hardcopy of the code, and lecture notes.
References
[1] Poul Henriksen, “A Direct Interaction Tool for Object-Oriented Programming
Education,” Master Thesis, The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute for Production
Technology, University of Southern Denmark, 2004.
[2] Peggy Doerschuk, Jiangjiang Liu, Judith Mann, "Increasing Participation of Females and
Underrepresented Minorities in Computing," Computer, pp. 110-113, April, 2009
[3] Peggy Doerschuk , Jiangjiang Liu , Judith Mann, “INSPIRED Computing Academies for
Middle School Students: Lessons Learned,” The Fifth Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity
in Computing Conference: Intellect, Initiatives, Insight, and Innovations, April 01-04, 2009,
Portland, Oregon
[4] Peggy Doerschuk , Jiangjiang Liu , Judith Mann, “INSPIRED Broadening Participation:
First Year Experience and Lessons Learned,” 14th annual ACM SIGCSE conference, July
06-09, 2009, Paris, France
[5] Zachary Henkel, Peggy Doerschuk, Judith Mann, “Exploring Computer Science through
Autonomous Robotics,” 39th Frontiers in Education Conference, Oct. 18 – 21, 2009, San
Antonio, Texas
[6] Hall, K. and Juarez, V., “INSPIRED Instructional Materials for Engaging High School
Students,” poster presented at the Association for Computing Educators in Texas
Conference, October, 2009.
[7] Vincent, D. and Juarez, V., “INSPIRED summer academy program: encouraging students
to participate in Computer Science Activities,” poster presented at the Association for
Computing Educators in Texas Conference, October, 2009.
[8] Beltran, I. and Juarez, V., “Instructional materials for engaging middle school students in
computing using animation” In Proceedings of 2008 Grace Hopper Celebration (Keystone,
USA, October 01-04, 2008).

Impact on the Goal of CREU
Our goal with this project is to increase the number of students, especially underrepresented
students, who go into computing fields by increasing their interest in computing. If more
students pursue majors in computing related areas, there will be an increased likelihood that
they will pursue an advanced degree in computing.
As participants in this project, we will gain essential experience in organization and project
management. We will also gain skills in conducting background research and in
communicating ideas to individuals and groups. Also, by submitting abstracts and papers to
conferences, we will gain experience that will make us competitive in our graduate school
applications. All of the experiences and skills that we will gain will make us more successful
in meeting our education and career goals.

Activities and Responsibilities
Throughout the course of the project we will have bi-weekly meetings. We will be
individually responsible for being familiar with Greenfoot. Together we will decide on what
type of game to develop, and which fundamentals to focus on. Once decided, one or two of
us will focus on development of the game, and the other(s) will focus on researching teaching
strategies and material development. Lesson development includes creating instruction
materials introducing the core concepts, providing demonstrations, and teacher supplements.
We will break up the lessons between us, and peer review one another along with the faculty
mentor. Assessment materials will be jointly constructed and revised. Each of us will be
responsible for contacting select high schools to offer mini session and extended seminars. In
the summer we will co-coordinate the high school academy with INSPIRED, providing and
teaching our materials. We will contact an analyst for our assessment tests, and revise our
materials based on the results. Our research will be submitted into a few different
conferences as either a poster or a work in progress paper. If accepted, we will collaborate on
the presentation and attend the conference together.

Faculty Activities and Responsibilities
Dr. Doerschuk’s duties include reviewing our proposal, aiding us on adhering to our timeline,
and guiding us on game, lesson, and questionnaire development. She will also attend our
meetings once a week to give us feedback. Dr. Doerschuk is a co-director of the INSPIRED
program and has published multiple papers on increasing participation through middle school
and high school academies, so she is more than qualified to assist us.

Project timeline
August:

•  Become familiar with Greenfoot
•  Research teaching structures and material developments
•  ACET poster submission

September - November:

•  Game development
•  Lesson development
•  Identify core concepts
•  Build lesson plans, and demos
•  Make curriculum adaptable for mini and extended sessions
•  Teacher supplements
• SIGCSE poster submission

December - January:

•  Preliminary discussion with assessment professional
•  Assessment material development
•  Content quizzes
•  Scoring matrix
•  Feedback assessments
• Contact local high schools and offer free seminars
• FIE abstract submission (based on FIE 2010 deadlines)

February - March:

• Follow up with schools
•  Dry run implementation
•  Test “mini session” materials
• Single seminars at high schools
• Teaching supplements, lessons, and scoring matrices
•  Test “extended” materials
• A series of seminars building on one another
• Teaching supplements, lessons, and scoring matrices

April - May:

•  Analyze feedback, and quizzes from dry runs with assessment professional
•  Conduct revisions on feedback assessments, content quizzes, and scoring matrices
•  Coordinate high school academy with INSPIRED
•  Research packaging options and possible interest from schools
•  Assemble teaching package

June - July:

•  Conduct summer high school academies with INSPIRED
•  Analyze feedback, and quizzes with assessment professional
•  Follow up with interested schools about teaching package

Role of the CREU project within the Larger Scope of this Research Project
This project will be utilized by the INSPIRED program at Lamar University. The INSPIRED
program seeks to broaden participation of women and minorities in the computer science
field by conducting outreach towards younger students through its road shows (seminars) and
summer computing academies. The program has previously used NXT and IntelliBrain
robots in the academies to provoke interest and excitement and impart knowledge in middle
and high school students. The assessments gathered from these academies show that students
have increased their interest and knowledge. We feel that the assessments from the previous
robotics sessions have provided preliminary data which we can use in the development,
analysis, and revision of Greenfoot materials. The Greenfoot materials would be originally
tested during the spring semester in INSPIRED road shows and outreach activities. The
materials developed during this project will then be incorporated into INSPIRED’s 2011 high
school academy in place of the robotics sessions.