AMANDA GILBERT Studying the Effectiveness of Storytelling Alice in Teaching Programming Concepts to Elementary School Students
Abstract Cardinal Forest Elementary School 4 th Grade (Mostly Girls: 3 Boys) English and Mathematical Standards of Learning Python as an End Goal
Introduction Drag-and-drop programming environment, transition to individual coding Programming environment centered on graphics, transition to non-visual environment Python transition will begin in the 4 th quarter Storytelling Alice is compatible with the fourth grade Standards of Learning
Background: English Standards of Learning (that can be enhanced by S.A.) “Seek ideas and opinions of others” “Use evidence to support opinions” “Explain the author’s purpose” “Describe how the choice of language, setting, and information contributes to the author’s purpose” “Identify major events and supporting details” “Develop a plan for writing” “Organize writing to convey a central idea”
Background Storytelling Alice developed by Caitlin Kelleher at Carnegie Mellon University Kelleher targeted middle-school-aged girls Boys and girls ideas of “ideal technology” is significantly different Diversity is important in technology
Development: Project One Taught the children how to create a world (create a scene in Storytelling Alice) This project took a couple classes All children got some important concepts from this lesson: how to create a setting and how to add objects and scale/move them accordingly
Project One
Development: Project Two This was the first introduction to creating a method Do In Order/Do Together Values taught in class: Number, String, Boolean, Object
Development: Project Two
Development: Quiz One Tested children’s abilities to form their own control statements and methods They were given the methods/control statements and the order they were to go in and they had to write them in the brackets This tests their ability to create programs on their own
Development: Project Three This project combined all skills so far The kids created a world Started with a story, picked out the setting and characters Created code using control statements and values
Development: Project Three
Results and Conclusions I have changed my direction from the start of the year I am now headed toward Python and am trying to separate the students into those that are capable and those that aren’t through a series of projects and quizzes I have become a better teacher through this process: more patient
Results and Conclusions Quiz results: Very Proficient: 80% -100% correct Proficient: 50%-80% correct Not Very Proficient: 20%-50% correct Not At All Proficient: 0%-20% correct There were 5 perfect tests out of 16 (31.25%)
Results and Conclusions