Eileen
M. Peluso
Associate Professor of Mathematical
Sciences
Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA 17701
Sabbatical 2010
The Impact of Alice on the Attitudes of Middle School Students Toward
Computing
Enrollment
in undergraduate computer science and engineering programs has suffered from
two problems, dropping enrollments of female students since the mid ‘80s and
dropping enrollments and retention overall since 2000. Research into the reasons behind the first
problem has been sparse but increasing over the past decade. There has been much speculation as to the
reasons for the second problem but little research. Rather, efforts have focused on ways to
engage millennial students in the introductory undergraduate computer science
courses to improve retention and in K-12 courses and outreach programs to raise
interest in the discipline. Carnegie
Mellon’s Alice project has produced an interactive, animation-based
programming environment that is aimed at addressing both problems and is
sufficiently flexible for use from middle school to the first semester
undergraduate level. The proposed
sabbatical will entail the development and presentation of Alice-based curricular units.
If arrangements can be made, I will present the units at regional middle
and high schools. If not, I will make
arrangements to work through after-school, outreach, and gifted programs. The former arrangement would have the added
benefit of familiarizing area technology teachers with the Alice programming environment and its use. If it is not possible to present the units in
area schools, I will invite technology teachers to observe the units being
presented in the alternate venues. In
either case, I will gather data on the impact that the use of Alice has on the attitudes of the
students.
Download: Curriculum
Unit Materials (Lesson plans, Handouts, Rubrics, and Worlds)
Full
text of the sabbatical proposal
Pre-survey
forms
Post-survey
forms
Published
results (announcement)
Please visit www.alice.org
for information on the Alice
software!