computer science

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Save or Save As: Teaching Kids Where Their Work Lives Inside Computers

December 4, 2012 | 8:00 AM | By

TB

By Sheena Vaidyanathan

The third grade class is busy working in the computer lab when the teacher reminds everyone to save their files.

“Save or Save As?” someone asks.

No one has ever explained the difference to these students and no one will have the time to explain it. With a frown on their faces, students tentatively enter file names, agonizing on simple things like, “Is there an upper case in the name, how about the space, and did I check the folder?”

Young computer users vary in their file-saving styles. A few panic with the saving process; something can go wrong and a teacher should personally check the file names before they click Save. These students worry that their project may disappear in a world of files, folders and servers.

At a time when education technology is getting a lot of attention, there is no class time allocated to technology education.

Another kind of student completely trusts in the magic of computers. They click Exit, hit Okay on the Save dialog box and leave happily. Some of these students then wonder why they cannot find their files; they accuse the computer of eating up the work they saved.They wonder why their file has to be found by a desperate computer teacher and is titled ‘Untitled’ and is sitting in an unknown folder. In most cases, students do not know what happens in the strange underworld of computer files. They just hope their work will be found again when needed.

Dealing with files is usually learned in the process of working with the application that matters – Word, iMovie, Photoshop for example. Most adults have worked long enough with files that they can save, backup, rename, import, export, upload, download, search and organize files without fear. They know that occasionally one must check file types, dates or file sizes. The third grader has to master this while also learning how to write a book report. No one will give them a lesson on Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Teaching With Tech, coding, computer science, programming, STEM

Hands-On Science Exams Reveal Students’ Skills

June 19, 2012 | 7:28 AM | By
By Lillian Mongeau

To get a better understanding of how well students can solve complex problems and apply science to real-life scenarios, the National Assessment for Education Progress recently used hands-on experiments as a way to test 4th, 8th, and 12th grade students, and found that this kind of assessment gives a much more accurate reflection of student comprehension.

Results from a 2009 round of testing called The Nation’s Report Card Science in Action: Hands-On and Interactive Computer Task, examined 6,000 students—2,000 at each grade level—from across the country. Students performed tasks like testing water samples (12th grade) and assembling electric circuits (4th grade). They also participated in interactive computer tasks that simulated longer term experiments, like observing plant growth. In both scenarios, students were evaluated on their ability to perform the tasks, observe the results and draw conclusions.

“The bottom line is, we learned so much more that we couldn’t have learned from those paper and pencil tests,” said Jack Buckley, commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics, which creates the annual “Nation’s Report Card” based on the results of tests like this one administered by the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP).

But what they learned was a mixed bag.

A majority of students at all grade levels (76 percent) were able to perform the simpler experiments correctly and accurately observe the results. However, when experiments involved more Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, asessment, computer science, NAEP, STEM

What’s Inside Your Computer? These 6th-Graders Can Tell you

April 4, 2012 | 11:09 AM | By

A 6th-grade student's rendering of what's inside the computer.

By Sheena Vaidyanathan

Have you ever looked inside a laptop? Have you ever held a CPU or studied the components on a computer motherboard? Though we use computers everyday, many of us know little about the fascinating world inside.

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In the spirit of tech innovation that’s defined Silicon Valley, every sixth grader in the Los Altos School District will be able to describe what goes on inside a computer. Students spend several classes studying a computer motherboard, drawing it in their notebooks and creating a 3D model of the computer on the computer. This hardware lesson is part of a required weekly class in a program that teaches science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with a focus on creativity, collaboration and computer science.

Along with computer hardware, students learn the art of drawing from observation; the ability to simplify what is complex. Students use their pencil drawings to create a 3D model on the computer using Google SketchUp, a free application. Using the tool is not exactly new to these students — they used it to create 3D models of houses in a digital design class in the fifth grade.

Students are encouraged to use their own interpretation and creativity in designing the 3D model. They don’t have to make it look exactly like the original, and can create their own work style. Some quickly make blocks and label them; others go back several times to the physical motherboard in the classroom to re-check the drawing and count out the exact number of components and relative sizes. The completed models are colored, labeled and then exported to a 2D image so they can be added to the student’s Google site as part of their e-Portfolio for the class. (Check out their samples here.)

Besides this computer hardware lesson, students learn vector graphics, binary numbers, computer programming, and how to post onto their Google sites. They work in teams to create video games using Scratch, a programming language from MIT.

But these students are not just learning about technology; they’re learning computational thinking skills, a problem-solving process that includes the ability to formulate problems so a computer can solve them. Some consider computational thinking one of the key skills in the digital age.

This class, along with the fifth-grade computer programming class, the implementation of the Khan Academy and collaborative online homework, is part of the school district’s aim to teach Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching With Tech, computer science, Google SketchUp, javascript:;, programming

Introducing Programming to Preschoolers

February 23, 2012 | 8:15 AM | By

Flickr: AngryJulieMonday

By Heather Chaplin

Since MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten group released Scratch in 2007, kids ages 8 to 13 have built more than 2.2 million animations, games, music, videos and stories using the kid-friendly programming language.

Scratch allows kids to snap together graphical blocks of instructions, like Lego bricks, to control sprites—the movable objects that perform actions. Sprites can dance, sing, run and talk.

Now, with a grant from the National Science Foundation, Lifelong Kindergarten is collaborating with Tufts University’s DevTech Research Group to make Scratch Jr, a new version aimed at kids in preschool to second grade. The expected launch date is summer 2012.

The new project raises questions about childhood development and digital learning, and just how early kids should be introduced to computers.

Mitch Resnick, director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group, spearheaded the creation of Scratch. Having worked with a network of afterschool programs using digital media, Resnick was struck by the lack of software that enabled kids to go beyond playing with other people’s media. There was nothing that encouraged them to make their own interactive stories and games.

“Computers for most people are black boxes. I believe kids should understand objects are ‘smart’ not because they’re just smart, but because someone programmed them to be smart.”

“What’s most important to me is that young children start to develop a relationship with the computer where they feel they’re in control,” Resnick said. “We don’t want kids to see the computer as something where they just browse and click. We want them to see digital technologies as something they can use to express themselves.”

There’s been a lot of buzz in the last few years about what it means to be literate in the 21st century. To Resnick, teaching kids to program was like teaching children of another generation how to write.

“At one point, there was a growing realization that people needed to learn how to write as well as read,” Resnick said. “They needed to be able to express themselves as well as understand how other people expressed themselves. Now it’s the same with new media. It’s not enough to be able to interact with new technologies; you have to be able to create with new technologies.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, computer science, early-education, MIT, Mitch Resnick, programming, Scratch

Should Computer Science Be Required in K-12?

December 15, 2011 | 11:26 AM | By

TB

Computer science is not widely taught, even though programming may be one of the most important skills of the 21st century. While most schools do recognize the importance of helping students learn how to use new technologies, you’ll still find scant opportunities in K-12 classes for students to learn how to actually build those very technologies.

A report issued last year by the Association of Computing Machinery found that very few states offer K-12 computer science education at all. Just nine states allow CS courses to count towards graduation requirements for math or science. And no states require computer science for graduation.

Teaching computer science isn’t simply about learning to program. It’s about computational thinking, logic, reasoning, and problem solving too.

Why the absence of CS courses from elementary and secondary schools? A recent article in Technology Horizons Journal points to a few obstacles to teaching computer science: questions about teacher certification, debates about what a CS curriculum should contain, and concerns about where CS fits into the curriculum and/or the schedule. Is computer science math? Is it Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, computer science, K-12

Computer Science With a Twist: Students Hack into Kinect

July 6, 2011 | 10:44 AM | By

Daniel Choo

Within the first 60 days of its release, Microsoft sold some eight million Kinects, making it the fastest selling consumer electronics device in history (beating out the iPad and the VCR).

For those who aren’t familiar with it yet, Kinect is a sensor input device for the popular Xbox gaming console that allows gamers to play without any controllers.

It’s been less than a year since the Kinect has been available to the public, and while the rapid uptake by consumers has broken records, it still feels as though the full potential has yet to be unleashed — particularly in the classroom.

“I want to light a fire for you and your kids,” said computer science teacher Baker, “because this is really cool stuff.”

We’re probably just beginning to explore the possibilities for building and using video games for learning. Now, the Kinect adds even more dimensions to gaming, least of which is the physical and the auditory, bringing “the real world” to gaming.

The Kinect sensors include a RGB camera, a depth sensor, and a microphone — all meaning that the physical actions taken by gamers can be captured by the Kinect and used in turn to control simulations. “You are the controller,” as some of the early marketing for the device contends. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Teaching With Tech, computer science, Kinect, Microsoft, STEM