Integrating Computing into K-12 Mathematics

Susan Rodger, Richard Lucic, Melissa Dalis,Peggy Li, Chitra Gadwal and Wenhui Zhang

Duke Universitywww.cs.duke.edu/csed/alice/aliceInSchools

ICA CON 2012Research Triangle Park, NC

April 19, 2012

Supported by IBM Faculty Awards, the National Science Foundation Collaborative Grant DRL-1031351, a CRA distributed mentor award.

• Integrate Alice into high school and middle schools by training teachers – all disciplines

• Summer workshops for teachers in 2008 -2011, more in 2012

• Alice Symposium in 2009, next one in 2013• Developed free web tutorials– CS topics– Animation topics– Projects

Adventures in Alice Programming

Integrating Alice Virtual Worlds into K-12

• Alice is– Hands-on!– Interactive!– Visual!– Less Error prone– Exciting Results right away!

• Alice has the potential to excite kids about computer science in the same way that experiments excite kids about chemistry, physics and biology!

Math Example:Teacher Lesson Plan on quadrant plane

• Click on lighthouse

• Enter x,y position

• Objects randomly move

Random Sampling

Math Story – Variables/Algebra

Game with

Scientific Notation

Game with guessing new prices based on percentage discounts

User generates the data and then the

bar graph is created

Shows how the population of fish

changes over several rounds

Example – Collect data and create bar graph

Example: Plot points based on bike ride

Adventure Game

Language Arts Project: Book Report

Science Example – How Volcanoes Form

Virtual Computing Lab

What is it?A Computing Environment Delivery Service (Cloud Computing)Remote Access to High-End SoftwareAnytime, Anywhere, On Demand Computing

Motivation for Teachers

Shared Compute Resources (Always On)Custom Compute Environments (Can be Saved and Recalled at a Later Date)"Distributed" EducationIncreased Utilization of Hardware, While Meeting the Needs of Teachers and Students

Value for TeachersUpdate one (the VCL), run many (student machines)Shared LibrariesUbiquitous AccessShared Resources, Help Files, etc.CIPA Compliant (per Durham Public School District Standards)

Web site• Adventures in Alice Programming www.cs.duke.edu/csed/alice/aliceInSchools