Visual Programming: Computing Resources to Unleash K-12 Creativity

Visual Programming:Computing Resources

to Unleash K-12 Creativity

Joel Adams, Ph.D.Department of Computer Science

Calvin College

2012 Michigan Tapestry


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 …


CS Bachelors Degrees (U.S.)


What Are The Facts?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics…





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.


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

How Do We Engage Students?


Many of today’s students are visual learners

- We need visual tools to engage them

Demos


Alice and Scratch at Calvin

• Imaginary Worlds Camps at Calvino Summer camps for middle school and upo Roughly 300 campers since 2003o 2003-07: Storytelling using Aliceo 2008-11: Games | music videos using

Scratcho Same concepts taught in both versions

(variables, selection, repetition, abstraction)oNoticeable differences in campers’ questions

• What are IWC campers learning?122012 Michigan Tapestry

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


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 projectso 103 Scratch gaming projectso 10 Scratch music video projects

• All projects available at alice.calvin.edu


Idea

• Study those projects to see what computing concepts campers are applying in themo 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

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)


The Short Answer

We found statistically significant differences (p < .01) in the number of:oVariableso If statementso Loop statementsoDialog (say/think) messageso…

used in the different project genres.


Variable Declarations Per 100 Lines


Significance of Differences:+ Game vs Video: p = 5.4e-7+ Game vs Storytelling: p = 1.54e-7– Video vs Storytelling: p = 0.71

Percentage of Projects Using Variables


Significance of Differences:– Game vs Video: p = 0.082+Game vs Storytelling: p = 2.095e-18– Video vs Storytelling: p = 0.629

If Statements Per 100 Lines


Significance of Differences:+Game vs Video: p = 1.25e-7+Game vs Storytelling: p = 7.09e-37– Video vs Storytelling: p = 0.070

Loop Statements Per 100 Lines


Significance of Differences:– Game vs Video: p = 0.951+Game vs Storytelling: p = 1.1e-5+Video vs Storytelling: p = 0.0064

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.


Project Length (Total Lines of Code)


Significance of Differences:+Game vs Video: p = 0.0014– Game vs Storytelling: p = 0.083– Video vs Storytelling: p = 0.136

Dialog (Say/Think) Msgs Per 100 Lines


Significance of Differences:– Game vs Video: p = 0.392+Game vs Storytelling: p = 1.1e-46+Video vs Storytelling: p = 8.24e-10

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…


Alice Lines of Code By Age


Significance of Difference:+p = 4.15e-5

Scratch PickRandom Per 100 Lines By Age


Significance of Difference:+p = 0.0083

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…


Scratch Loop-Types Per 100 Lines by M/F


Significance of Differences:– repeat n times (p = 0.28)+forever (p = 2.4e-7)

– forever if (p = 0.082)

– repeat until (p = 0.11)

Alice Dialog Msgs Per 100 Lines by M/F


Significance of Difference:+ p = 3.67e-5

Alice Fire Animations Per Project by M/F


Significance of Difference:+ p = 1.81e-9

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.


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


Constructs Per 100 Lines by Genre


Some Conclusions

• Given an open-ended storytelling project, boys and girls tell very different kinds of stories, on average.– Stereotypical tastes begin early!


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


Resources


• 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 [email protected]

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Visual Programming: Computing Resources to Unleash K-12 Creativity

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