amanda gilbert studying the effectiveness of storytelling alice in teaching programming concepts to...
TRANSCRIPT
AMANDA GILBERT
Studying the Effectiveness of Storytelling Alice in Teaching
Programming Concepts to Elementary School Students
Abstract
Cardinal Forest Elementary School4th Grade (Mostly Girls: 3 Boys)English and Mathematical Standards of
LearningPython 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 4th quarterStorytelling 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 differentDiversity 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 classesAll children got some important concepts
from this lesson: how to create a setting and how to add objects and scale/move them accordingly
Development: Project Two
This was the first introduction to creating a method
Do In Order/Do TogetherValues taught in class: Number, String,
Boolean, Object
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 farThe kids created a worldStarted with a story, picked out the setting
and charactersCreated code using control statements and
values
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% correctProficient: 50%-80% correctNot Very Proficient: 20%-50% correctNot At All Proficient: 0%-20% correctThere were 5 perfect tests out of 16 (31.25%)