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Eric.ed.gov – Beyond Introductory Programming: Success Factors for Advanced Programming

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Numerous studies document high drop-out and failure rates for students in computer programming classes. Studies show that even when some students pass programming classes, they still do not know how to program. Many factors have been considered to explain this problem including gender, age, prior programming experience, major, math background, personal attributes, and the programming language itself. Research in this area has mainly been confined to introductory programming courses. This study explores the problem at a higher level. It tracks students longitudinally as they move from the first introductory programming class, to the second introductory class, and finally, to completion of an advanced programming course. The research question answered was: What are the factors contributing to the success or lack of success in advanced programming? The success… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – 2,445 Hours of Code: What I Learned from Facilitating Hour of Code Events in High School Libraries

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This article describes a school librarian’s experience with initiating an Hour of Code event for her school’s student body. Hadi Partovi of Code.org conceived the Hour of Code “to get ten million students to try one hour of computer science” (Partovi, 2013a), which is implemented during Computer Science Education Week with a goal of bringing awareness of the value of including computer science in school curricula, and increasing future job opportunities for students worldwide. The author organized the Hour of Code event for her school with the expectation that the event would increase awareness among administrators, teachers, students, and parents of the value of a computer science education and create a demand for more computer science education in her school district. Students should be exposed to computer… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Unplugged Cybersecurity: An Approach for Bringing Computer Science into the Classroom

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The United States Naval Academy (USNA) STEM Center for Education and Outreach addresses an urgent Navy and national need for more young people to pursue careers in STEM fields through world-wide outreach to 17,000 students and 900 teachers per year. To achieve this mission, the STEM Center has developed a hands-on and inquiry-based methodology to be used with K-12 educators at professional development workshops and with students through camps, festivals and fairs, and STEM days. According to recent data, math and computer science (CS) are the fastest growing fields among STEM careers (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). The Computer Science for All initiative (U.S. Office of the Press Secretary, 2016) urges communities to bring more computer science education into the classroom to meet the rapidly rising… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Digital Gaming for Evolutionary Biology Learning: The Case Study of Parasite Race, an Augmented Reality Location-Based Game

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Games have been used for a long time in teaching and learning. The increasing use of mobile phones makes it possible to link learning outside the classroom with augmented reality (AR). We tested how well the learning of conceptual models can be facilitated by AR games. We present a game designed for the in-service teacher-training workshop to model evolutionary and ecological relationships explicitly. The game, Parasite Race, models the life cycles of three different parasites and allows player to choose between two evolutionary strategies. We tested the game with experienced teachers and revealed a wide range of different gaming strategies: some of the teachers were able to reflect their game strategy and choose appropriate actions right away whereas some of the teachers did not and lost their… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Developing the Students’ Ability in Understanding Mathematics and Self-Confidence with VBA for Excel

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Visual Basic Application for Excel is a simple program language and has the power to process data quickly. The utilization of math functions in Microsoft Excel can help work on Excel display more interactive so that teachers can create props inside Excel. The advantages of Microsoft Excel than other mathematical software are the many math functions and images available in the form of shapes or pictures. The availability of VBA, math and image functions in Microsoft Excel help teachers to design the creation of media related to mathematics learning, especially to develop the ability of junior high school students who have difficulty to connect mathematics lessons with basic mathematics knowledge requirements. By using VBA for Excel, the ability of junior high school students to improve in the… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Secondary Computer Science Teachers’ Pedagogical Needs

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The purpose of this study is to identify secondary computer science (CS) teachers’ pedagogical needs in the United States. Participants were selected from secondary teachers who were teaching CS courses or content in a school setting (public, private, or charter) or an after-school program during the time of data collection. This is a qualitative study using CS teachers’ discussions in the Computer Science Teachers Association’s (CSTA) email listserv, responses to open-ended questions in a questionnaire, and discussions in follow-up interviews. Content analysis, thematic analysis and constant comparative method of qualitative data analysis were used to analyze the data. The most common pedagogical need expressed was learning student-centered strategies for teaching CS and guiding students’ understanding with the use of scaffolding and team-management strategies in CS classes. Furthermore,… Continue Reading