Network Routing Algorithms Patricia Désiré Marconi Academy, CPS IIT Research Mentor: Dr. Tricha Anjali This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. EEC Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. 1

Overview  Students took pretest.  PowerPoint presented types of engineers and associated them with real world applications, incorporating ethics issues.  Assessed prior knowledge of routing and algorithms, followed by discussion and repetition of key vocabulary.  Students designed a route and computed the distance and time involved.  Students took posttest. 2

What worked!  Discussion  Hands on activities  Repetition  Incentives  Physical activities  Making connections  Making extensions 3

Suggested improvements  For younger grades, preteach some concepts. map reading measurement of time and distance  Redesign routing worksheet to add another column.  Give more specific design instructions.  Change timeframe for implementation. 4

Design  Students viewed a route on a PowerPoint slide.  Students designed a cost effective route from one point on a map to another.  Module contains a visual arts project to design a network according to given requirements. 5

Inquiry  Students viewed routes and answered questions as to why the truck used that route and determined alternative routes.  Students brainstormed reasons for choosing alternative routes. 6

Ethics  Students discussed ethics issues related to individual engineering fields.  Students related ethics issues in the media involving engineering.  Students could discuss the ethics issues of alternative routes. 7

Pre- and Post- Test Results  Overall, the mean score of 12 pretests was 42%.  The mean score of 11 posttests was 83%. PrePost Ethics29%86% Inquiry/ Design 15%71% Content22%80% Engineering 73%90% 8

Examples  No change in naming 2 kinds of engineers.  Significant change in content (define algorithm) from 8% on pretest to 100% on posttest.  Explanations on ethics questions were significantly more developed on posttest. 9