Caitlin Hulsey
ABSTRACT
In this paper we report on the design and results of a one-week, residential summer camp experience that introduced computing concepts to middle school girls in the context of an online, multiplayer, virtual world known as the Curiosity Grid. In contrast to programming environments designed specifically as teaching tools to introduce children to programming, virtual world programming exposes novice learners to a more representative computer science experience. Students write real code and get real syntax errors when their code is not correct. They also design objects in a three-dimensional world where knowledge of mathematical concepts such as 3-D global and local coordinate systems, and 3-D transformations are important to the creation of objects and behaviors. Programming artifacts from the camp and feedback from the camp participants provide a strong argument that middle school girls can handle the challenge of this approach and even be enthusiastic about it.
- 3rd Rock Grid, Retrieved July 30, 2013 from http://www.3rdrockgrid.com/.Google Scholar
- Burke Q. and Kafai, Y.B., The writers' workshop for youth programmers: digital storytelling with scratch in middle school classrooms. In Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE '12. ACM, 2012, 433--438. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Charles H. Houston Center | Clemson University, South Carolina 2013. Retrieved July 31, 2013 from http://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/houston/.Google Scholar
- Craig, M. and Horton, D. Gr8 designs for gr8 girls: a middle-school program and its evaluation. In Proceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education, SIGCSE '09, pages 221--225, New York, NY, USA, 2009. ACM, 221--225. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Doerschuk, P., Jiangjiang, L., Mann, J., 2007. Pilot Summer Camps in Computing for Middle School Girls: From Organization Through Assessment, ITiCSE'07, June 23-27, 2007, Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom, 4--8. Google ScholarDigital Library
- ECS. Exploring Computer Science. CS Education Statistics, 2013, Retrieved July 31, 2013 from http://www.exploringcs.org/resources/cs-statistics.Google Scholar
- Gross, P. A., Herstand, M. S., Hodges, J. W., and Kelleher, C. L. 2010. A code reuse interface for non-programmer middle school students. In Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces (IUI '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 219--228. DOI=10.1145/1719970.1720001 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1719970.1720001 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hardnett, C., Gaming for Middle School Students: Building Virtual Worlds, GDCSE '08, Miami, FL, USA, February 2008, 21--25. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Harms, K. J., Kerr, J. H., Ichinco, M., Santolucito, M., Chuck, A., Koscik, T., Chou, M., and Kelleher, C. L. 2012. Designing a community to support long-term interest in programming for middle school children. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 304--307. DOI=10.1145/2307096.2307152 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2307096.2307152 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hill, V. and Meister, M. 2013. Virtual worlds and libraries: Gridhopping to new worlds. College & Research Libraries News 74, 43--47.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Hu, H. H. 2008. A summer programming workshop for middle school girls. J. Comput. Sci. Coll. 23, 6 (June 2008), 194--202. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Imprudence:Downloads - Kokua Wiki, Retrieved July 30, 2013 from http://wiki.kokuaviewer.org/wiki/Imprudence:Downloads.Google Scholar
- Kelleher, C., Pausch, R., and Kiesler, S. Storytelling alice motivates middle school girls to learn computer programming. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, 2007, 1455--1464. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Larkins, D. B., J. Moore, J. C., Rubbo, L. J., and Covington, L. R. 2013. Application of the cognitive apprenticeship framework to a middle school robotics camp. In Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (SIGCSE '13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 89--94. DOI=10.1145/2445196.2445226 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2445196.2445226 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lee, J. J., & Hoadley, C. M. Ugly in a world where you can choose to be beautiful: teaching and learning about diversity via virtual worlds. In Proceedings of ICLS 2006, 383--389. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Libeskind-Hadas, R. The Computing Community Consortium Blog, A Service of the Computing Research Community. Towards a New AP Course in Computer Science, 2010, Retrieved July 31, 2013 from http://www.cccblog.org/2010/07/19/towards-a-new-ap-course-in-computer-science/.Google Scholar
- Monroy, C., Klisch, Y. and Miller, L. M. Emerging contexts for science education: embedding a forensic science game in a virtual world. In Proceedings of the 2011 iConference (Seattle, Washington, 2011), 622--629. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Moore, D., Thome, M., and Haigh, K. Z. Scripting your world, the official guide to second life scripting. Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana, 2008.Google Scholar
- OSgrid - OpenSimulator Metaverse, Retrieved July 30, 2013 from http://www.osgrid.org/.Google Scholar
- Russell, D., Davies, M., and Totten, I., "GEOWORLDS: Utilizing Second Life to Develop Advanced Geosciences Knowledge, 2008 Second IEEE International Conference on Digital Games and Intelligent Toys Based Education. Nov. 2008, 93--97 doi: 10.1109/DIGITEL.2008.50 Google ScholarDigital Library
- School of Computing | Clemson University, SC 2013. Retrieved July 31, 2013 from http://www.cs.clemson.edu/.Google Scholar
- Second Life, Retrieved August 1, 2013 from http://www.secondlife.com/.Google Scholar
- Steinkuehler, C. and Alagoz, E. 2010. Out-of-school virtual worlds based programs: a cross-case analysis. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - Volume 2 (ICLS '10), Kimberly Gomez, Leilah Lyons, and Joshua Radinsky (Eds.), Vol. 2. International Society of the Learning Sciences, 304--305. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wilson, C., Sudol, L., Stephenson, C., and Stehlik, M., 2010. Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K-12 Computer Science in the Digital Age. ACM Available as: http://www.acm.org/runningonempty/fullreport.pdf.Google Scholar
- Zweben, S. The Computing Research Association. CRA Taulbee Survey (2011--2012), 2013.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Camp CyberGirls: using a virtual world to introduce computing concepts to middle school girls
Recommendations
Exploring careers while learning Alice 3D: a summer camp for middle school girls
SIGCSE '11: Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science educationWe discuss a study conducted during a summer program for middle school girls that emphasized possible future careers that rely on computer technology. During the weeklong camp middle school girls created an original computer project, visited campus ...
Hands-On Summer Camp to Attract K–12 Students to Engineering Fields
This paper explains the organization and execution of a summer engineering outreach camp designed to attract and motivate high school students as well as increase their awareness of various engineering fields. The camp curriculum included hands-on, ...
How to Plan and Run Summer Computing Camps: Logistics (Abstract Only)
SIGCSE '16: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science EducationThis workshop will provide details on how to plan and run non-residential, week-long computing summer camps for 4th-12th grade students. Georgia Tech has been offering computing summer camps since 2004. These camps are financially self-sustaining and ...
Comments