1. How to carve a challenging BEBRAS task Hans-Werner Hein 058-16-15-27 N 112-15-07-10 W How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 01 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

2. In this talk a "BEBRAS Task" is seen as an informational object How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 02 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11 Each "BEBRAS Task" is used in at least four target scenarios

3. How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 03 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11 target scenario 1 to be an inspiration for controversial and integrating discussions on "What is Informatics?", "How to present Informatics?", "What is important in Informatics?" etc...... at the international BEBRAS workshop

4. "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." Which prominent European Informatics scientist and Turing Award recipient said this? Edsger Wybe Dijkstra from The Netherlands (* 11.05.1930, † 06.08.2002) Ole-Johan Dahl from Norway (* 12.10.1931, † 29.06.2002) Peter Naur from Danmark (* 25.10.1928) Niklaus Wirth from Switzerland (* 15.02.1934) How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 04 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

5. How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 05 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11 target scenario 2 to be one in a set of BEBRAS tasks to be understood and answered in short time -> about 3 minutes per task

6. How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 06 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11 target scenario 3 to be the inspiration for a school class lecture or project, which deals with the "It's Informatics!" lying behind the task

7. It's Informatics! The "if-then-else" is a widespread used construct in programming languages. It decides, dependent from the current situation, about a program's next action. The "if-then-else" with its platonic "tertium non datur" suggests, that being able to make a dual decision is the standard case in life. This tempts programming beginners to use far to simple dualistic world models in their apps. Using nesting "if-then-else" constructs or - much better - "case" constructs, Informatics Didactics teaches, what the normal situation is: There is a third option to act, and a fourth, and a fifth... How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 07 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

8. How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 08 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11 target scenario 4 to be the basis of an edutainmental app for grown-ups, non-experts which are motivated to understand a bit more Informatics (: app comes from appetite :)

9. An actor to identify with: you the beaver (without name = ungendered) the beaver (with a name = gendered) peer group (school class, friends) a student (female or male) a famous person (historical or fictional) no actor (abstracted task)... and lots of other actor types... How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 09 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

10. An actor to identify with: Hypotheses younger students tend more to funny and fantastic actors elder students tend to serious actors or abstracted tasks in a contest it is boring, if all tasks use the same actor type you can change the actor type of any task How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 10 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

11. The terminology used in a task: as few terms as possible no various words for the same thing no similar words for different things no long and complicated words no abbreviations correct dualisms (if there is "left" then there is "right") terms have to be consistent with the pictures How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 11 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

12. The terminology used in a task: You go on a treasure hunt. Regard the three hints. Look for the treasure somewhere in the forest. Starting at the rocks head for the flowers. The treasure is hidden 20 steps distant from the snail. You start at the old cottage. Which route hits the treasure position? How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 12 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

13. The terminology used in a task: You go on a treasure hunt. Regard the three hints. Look for the treasure somewhere in the forest. Starting at the rocks head for the flowers. The treasure is hidden 20 steps distant from the snail. You start at the old cottage. Which route hits the treasure position? How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 13 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

14. The cover story: no redundancy short sentences the order of the few sentences is crucial for understanding first sentence should be an awareness catcher How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 14 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

15. The cover story: Simple programs are just a sequence of commands. A command describes something to do. A simple program only makes sense, if the commands are executed sequentially. How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 15 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

16. A message as an immediate award: Example: To maintain order and disorder in a set of things, you need a sorting algorithm which uses the common attributes of these things. learning by solving a task one basic insight per task (a meme, an "Ah!") How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 16 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11

17. The next three days have fun with all those task proposals! How to Carve a Challenging BEBRAS Task (page 17 of 17) Hans-Werner Hein (Verlässliche IT-Systeme) Open Conference on Informatics Fundamentals and Computer Fluency Druskininkai (Lithuania), 2011-05-11