1. Visual Programming: Computing Resources to Unleash K-12 Creativity Joel Adams, Ph.D. Department of Computer Science Calvin College 2012 Michigan Tapestry

2. 2 A Problem Many high school students believe: - computing jobs are boring - only nerds study computer science - computing = no social life - computing involves no creativity - all the jobs are going to Asia …

3. 32012 Michigan Tapestry CS Bachelors Degrees (U.S.)

4. 42012 Michigan Tapestry What Are The Facts? According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics…

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8. 8 Solving The Problem How can we attract students to computing and dispel the stereotypes?  Research suggests we need to engage students in middle school or earlier, before the negative stereotypes get set.  If we wait until high school, it may be too late.

9. 92012 Michigan Tapestry CSTA The Computer Science Teacher’s Association has defined K-12 Computing Curriculum SLOs:  Level 1 (K-6):  CS and Me  Level 2 (6-9).  CS and Community  Level 3 (9-12).  CS in the Modern World  CS Concepts and Practices  Topics in CS

10. How Do We Engage Students? 102012 Michigan Tapestry Many of today’s students are visual learners - We need visual tools to engage them

11. Demos 112012 Michigan Tapestry

12. Alice and Scratch at Calvin Imaginary Worlds Camps at Calvin o Summer camps for middle school and up o Roughly 300 campers since 2003 o 2003-07: Storytelling using Alice o 2008-11: Games | music videos using Scratch o Same concepts taught in both versions (variables, selection, repetition, abstraction) o Noticeable differences in campers’ questions What are IWC campers learning? 122012 Michigan Tapestry

13. Bloom’s 3 Lowest Learning Levels 1. Knows: Can recall or recognize ideas and information in the form they were learned 2. Comprehends: Can interpret or translate information based on prior learning 3. Applies: Can transfer or use principles or data to solve a problem or task 132012 Michigan Tapestry

14. IWC Projects Each IWC camper completes and demos an open-ended project at the camp’s Showcase Session We have a corpus of 322 projects… o 209 Alice 2.0 storytelling projects o 103 Scratch gaming projects o 10 Scratch music video projects All projects available at alice.calvin.edu 142012 Michigan Tapestry

15. Idea Study those projects to see what computing concepts campers are applying in them o If campers use a concept in their project, they are reaching Bloom level 3 wrt that concept (variables, selection, repetition, abstraction) o Count occurrences of variables, if statements, loop statements, subprograms, … o Count animation constructs common to both Alice and Scratch (move, say/think, wait, …) o Count specific objects (e.g., fire animations) 152012 Michigan Tapestry

16. Research Question Are there any significant differences between the different project genres (storytelling, music video, game) with respect to the concepts that campers use/apply? We wrote scripts to count these constructs, and normalize the counts (per 100 lines) 162012 Michigan Tapestry

17. The Short Answer We found statistically significant differences (p <.01) in the number of: o Variables o If statements o Loop statements o Dialog (say/think) messages o … used in the different project genres. 172012 Michigan Tapestry

18. Variable Declarations Per 100 Lines 182012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Differences: + Game vs Video: p = 5.4e-7 + Game vs Storytelling: p = 1.54e-7 –Video vs Storytelling: p = 0.71

19. Percentage of Projects Using Variables 192012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Differences: –Game vs Video: p = 0.082 +Game vs Storytelling: p = 2.095e-18 –Video vs Storytelling: p = 0.629

20. If Statements Per 100 Lines 202012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Differences: +Game vs Video: p = 1.25e-7 +Game vs Storytelling: p = 7.09e-37 –Video vs Storytelling: p = 0.070

21. Loop Statements Per 100 Lines 212012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Differences: –Game vs Video: p = 0.951 +Game vs Storytelling: p = 1.1e-5 +Video vs Storytelling: p = 0.0064

22. Subprograms Alice 2.0 provides fully parameterized methods Scratch 1.4 provides parameterless message- handlers for broadcasts –A build-your-own-block mechanism is coming in Scratch 2 We decided these abstraction mechanisms were too different to compare fairly. 222012 Michigan Tapestry

23. Project Length (Total Lines of Code) 232012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Differences: +Game vs Video: p = 0.0014 –Game vs Storytelling: p = 0.083 –Video vs Storytelling: p = 0.136

24. Dialog (Say/Think) Msgs Per 100 Lines 242012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Differences: –Game vs Video: p = 0.392 +Game vs Storytelling: p = 1.1e-46 +Video vs Storytelling: p = 8.24e-10

25. Age Differences We compared projects of younger (11, 12) campers vs older (13, 14) campers: –Variables –If statements –Loop statements –Objects –Lines of code –Use of particular constructs We found just 2 significant differences… 252012 Michigan Tapestry

26. Alice Lines of Code By Age 262012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Difference: +p = 4.15e-5

27. Scratch PickRandom Per 100 Lines By Age 272012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Difference: +p = 0.0083

28. Gender Differences We compared projects of male vs female campers for differences in the number of: –Variables –If statements –Loop statements –Objects –Lines of code –Use of particular constructs We found just 3 significant differences… 282012 Michigan Tapestry

29. Scratch Loop-Types Per 100 Lines by M/F 292012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Differences: –repeat n times (p = 0.28) +forever (p = 2.4e-7) –forever if (p = 0.082) –repeat until (p = 0.11)

30. Alice Dialog Msgs Per 100 Lines by M/F 302012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Difference: +p = 3.67e-5

31. Alice Fire Animations Per Project by M/F 312012 Michigan Tapestry Significance of Difference: +p = 1.81e-9

32. Some Conclusions Visual tools like Alice and Scratch help students visualize and master programming abstractions –Age affects students’ ability to master abstract concepts like randomness. 322012 Michigan Tapestry

33. Some Conclusions The game, music video, and storytelling project genres differ markedly in what they motivate students to use in open-ended projects (i.e., learn to apply at Bloom level 3). –Storytelling projects are good at teaching sequential / algorithmic thinking –Games motivate students to learn to use basic programming concepts like variables and control structures 332012 Michigan Tapestry

34. Constructs Per 100 Lines by Genre 342012 Michigan Tapestry

35. Some Conclusions Given an open-ended storytelling project, boys and girls tell very different kinds of stories, on average. –Stereotypical tastes begin early! 352012 Michigan Tapestry

36. Some Conclusions Alice and Scratch: –Both eliminate syntax error frustration, helping students focus on logic, master concepts –Scratch has the easier learning curve –Scratch’s social networking site lets students easily share their projects –Scratch’s 2D graphics let students create their own scenes and characters –Alice’s 3D graphics + Sims models are cool –Alice’s objects and methods bridge to Java and OOP 362012 Michigan Tapestry

37. Resources 372012 Michigan Tapestry Scratch: scratch.mit.edu –Educators resource site: scratched.media.mit.edu –A full middle school Scratch curriculum is available: colleenmlewis.com/scratch/ Alice: alice.org CSTA: csta.acm.org CS Principles: www.csprinciples.org Computing in the Core: www.computinginthecore.org Thank you! adams@calvin.edu