(7th Grade STEM Student puts the finishing touches on her Video Game)
BY
KRISTEN M. WHITE THE PUEBLO WEST VIEW
Published:
October 15, 2014
Do you remember playing Frogger on the
Atari game system or Pac-Man at the arcade? Well, some of today’s middle school
students at Skyview Middle School are recreating those games, and then building
their own in a video game creation segment of their STEM class.
Teacher Todd Seip added the video game
and software coding project to his STEM (science, technology, engineering and
math) courses this year.
The project was developed by the
University of Colorado through a National Science Foundation grant, and Skyview
is one of about 200 schools worldwide participating in CU’s research on the
subject.
While all of that sounds (and is) very
scholarly and scientific, if you talk to the students in the STEM classes at
Skyview, they’ll just tell you about the fun they’re having.“It’s complicated now and then, but the best
thing is I get to play on the computer for an hour,” said Austin LaPorte.
Nate Wilder said the most challenging
part for him was fixing what didn’t work correctly so he could win his own
game. He said the programming was really interesting and fun.
The research by CU is about
computational thinking patterns – in other words, that there is more than one
way to get to a solution. Researchers wanted to see how young the idea of
computational thinking patterns could be taught, so building a video game
seemed like a good way to reach middle schoolers. “They built a simple version
of Frogger first. They had to learn how to build it and make it move,” Seip
said. “The next game is called Journey, which is basically a Pac-Man type where
chasers chase down the player in the game.” For the final project, students got
to create their own video game using all the knowledge they’d amassed.
No two
video games – whether it be Frogger or Pac-Man style – were alike. Students got
to create the look of the game, what the characters looked like and more,
putting their own personal twist on everything. “We get to put our own
creativity and personality into it,” said Ja’Warren Smith.
“But it’s
hard sometimes because my ability to create actual art … it doesn’t look the
same as it does in my head!”
All of the grade levels of STEM courses
did the video games, so if current students return to STEM next year, they will
move onto creating three-dimensional projects. “This is giving them confidence
in using technology and in trusting themselves,” Seip said. “And they have to
try and try again – there are a lot of frustration levels to overcome to move
on sometimes.”
Researchers from the CU project were at
Skyview in September observing the progress. Additionally, all finished games
are loaded to an online arcade that is hosted by CU Boulder. Students can go
there and play each others games, which Seip said has been a lot of fun and
rewarding for the students. “I’ve had a lot of fun with this, but it is hard,”
said Madison Burns. “With the steps (of coding), you have to be precise.
Otherwise you have to go back. I like how we get to play our games and draw our
own things too.”
Thomas Shudell said he likes going home
to tell his parents about what he did at school, or explaining to friends that
he’s building and playing video games in school. Plus, it’s given him a new
appreciation for the state-of-the-art video games that are out there now on the
Wii, Xbox and other platforms.
Seip said sometime in February he plans
to host an open arcade night, where students, parents, staff and school board
members can come to the school and play the games created by Skyview students.
Audio: Alexander Repenning speaks with Ryan Warner
University of Colorado computer science professor Alexander Repenning helps students learn coding.
(Photo: Courtesy of Nadia Repenning)
A team of computer scientists and educators at the University of Colorado-Boulder wants to change the way computer programming is taught so that more women will be attracted to the profession.
The ongoing project known as Scalable Game Design is part of a broader effort to change this ratio and move away from traditional classroom methods that some students found to be uninteresting, girls and young women in particular.
Through an interactive program called Agent Cubes, kids learn to make 3-D video games using simple drag-and-drop actions.
Project leader Alexander Repenning, who teaches computer science at CU, says his research shows participation rate for girls of less than 10 percent in the traditional style of teaching computer science.
Repenning says Agent Cubes is easy to use and that one true advantage is that the program shifts roles so that the teacher and the students explore and solve the problems of creating a game together.
This is critical, according to Repenning, because teachers and students have struggled with the way programming has been traditionally taught -- with the teacher simply telling the students what to do and how to do it – through a long string of letters, symbols and numbers.
Using Scalable Game Design in the classroom brings the participation rate of girls up to an average of 48 percent, according to Repenning. His research has also found that girls want to be more involved in figuring out what to do and why they are making certain choices.
The old assignments were boring and too abstract for students to see any relevance to their lives, Repenning says. Students in the past might have been asked to compute prime numbers, for example.
“You are just one semi-colon away from disaster,” Repenning says.
The CU team's work to get girls interested in computer science is part of a large scale, long-term project to increase engagement among all underserved populations such as low income students, minorities and rural communities. The project has brought Scalable Game Design to schools across Colorado, as well as internationally and is collecting student-created games in an online arcade.
- See more at: http://www.cpr.org/news/story/colorado-professor-out-prove-computer-coding-isn-t-just-guy-thing#sthash.n0tVp9u7.dpuf
Mission: Reinventing computer science in public schools by motivating & educating all students including women and underrepresented communities to learn about computer science through game design starting at the middle school level.
Results: The project aimed at instructing 1200 students in 3 years but exceeded expectations in the first semester of implementation. The project has turned into the largest study of middle school computer science education in the USA with over 10,000 subjects from Alaska to Texas; from East coast to West coast including some of the most diverse and toughest schools in the nation; 45% of the students were girls, 64% of the girls want to continue!
MILL VALLEY, Calif. — Seven-year-old Jordan Lisle, a second grader, joined his family at a packed after-hours school event last month aimed at inspiring a new interest: computer programming.
“I’m a little afraid he’s falling behind,” his mother, Wendy Lisle, said, explaining why they had signed up for the class at Strawberry Point Elementary School.
The event was part of a national educational movement in computer coding instruction that is growing at Internet speeds. Since December, 20,000 teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade have introduced coding lessons, according to Code.org, a group backed by the tech industry that offers free curriculums. In addition, some 30 school districts, including New York City and Chicago, have agreed to add coding classes in the fall, mainly in high schools but in lower grades, too. And policy makers in nine states have begun awarding the same credits for computer science classes that they do for basic math and science courses, rather than treating them as electives.
Photo
Audrey Hagan, left, and Amelia Flint, both 8, learning to code last month at an event in Mill Valley, Calif. Founded last year, Code.org offers free curriculums.CreditJason Henry for The New York Times
There are after-school events, too, like the one in Mill Valley, where 70 parents and 90 children, from kindergartners to fifth graders, huddled over computers solving animated puzzles to learn the basics of computer logic.
It is a stark change for computer science, which for decades was treated like a stepchild, equated with trade classes like wood shop. But smartphones and apps are ubiquitous now, and engineering careers are hot. To many parents — particularly ones here in the heart of the technology corridor — coding looks less like an extracurricular activity and more like a basic life skill, one that might someday lead to a great job or even instant riches.
The spread of coding instruction, while still nascent, is “unprecedented — there’s never been a move this fast in education,” said Elliot Soloway, a professor of education and computer science at the University of Michigan. He sees it as very positive, potentially inspiring students to develop a new passion, perhaps the way that teaching frog dissection may inspire future surgeons and biologists.
But the momentum for early coding comes with caveats, too. It is not clear that teaching basic computer science in grade school will beget future jobs or foster broader creativity and logical thinking, as some champions of the movement are projecting. And particularly for younger children, Dr. Soloway said, the activity is more like a video game — better than simulated gunplay, but not likely to impart actual programming skills.
Some educators worry about the industry’s heavy role: Major tech companies and their founders, including Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, have put up about $10 million for Code.org. The organization pays to train high school teachers to offer more advanced curriculums, and, for younger students, it has developed a coding curriculum that marries basic instruction with video games involving Angry Birds and hungry zombies.
The lessons do not involve traditional computer language. Rather, they use simple word commands — like “move forward” or “turn right” — that children can click on and move around to, say, direct an Angry Bird to capture a pig.
Across the country, districts are signing up piecemeal. Chicago’s public school system hopes to have computer science as a graduation requirement at all of its 187 high schools in five years, and to have the instruction in 25 percent of other schools. New York City public schools are training 60 teachers for classes this fall in 40 high schools, in part to prepare students for college.
“There’s a big demand for these skills in both the tech sector and across all sectors,” said Britt Neuhaus, the director of special projects at the office of innovation for New York City schools. The city plans to expand the training for 2015 and is considering moving it into middle schools.
The movement comes with no shortage of “we’re changing the world” marketing fervor from Silicon Valley. “This is strategically significant for the economy of the United States,” said John Pearce, a technology entrepreneur. He and another entrepreneur, Jeff Leane, have started a nonprofit, MV Gate, to bring youth and family coding courses developed by Code.org to Mill Valley, an affluent suburb across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
Parents love the idea of giving children something to do with computers that they see as productive, Mr. Pearce said. “We have any number of parents who say, ‘I can’t take my kid playing one more hour of video games,’ ” he said. But if the children are exploring coding, the parents tell him, " ‘I can live with that all night long.’ ”
The concept has caught on with James Meezan, a second grader. He attended one of the first “Hour of Code” events sponsored by MV Gate in December with his mother, Karen Meezan, the local PTA president and a former tech-industry executive who now runs a real estate company. She is among the enthusiastic supporters of the coding courses, along with several local principals.
Her son, she said, does well in school but had not quite found his special interest and was “not the fastest runner on the playground.” But he loves programming and spends at least an hour a week at CodeKids, after-school programs organized by MV Gate and held at three of Mill Valley’s five elementary schools.
James, 8, explained that programming is “getting the computer to do something by itself.” It is fun, he said, and, besides, if he gets good, he might be able to do stuff like get a computer to turn on when it has suddenly died. His mother said he had found his niche; when it comes to programming, “he is the fastest runner.”
Other youngsters seemed more bewildered, at least at first. “The Google guys might’ve been coders, and the Facebook guys — I don’t know,” said Sammy Smith, a vibrant 10-year-old girl, when she arrived at the coding event at Strawberry Point.
But well into the session, she and her fifth-grade friends were digging in, moving basic command blocks to get the Angry Bird to its prey, and then playing with slightly more complex commands like “repeat” and learning about “if-then” statements, an elemental coding concept. The crowd had plenty of high-tech parents, including Scott Wong, director of engineering at Twitter. His 7-year-old son, Taeden, seemed alternately transfixed and confused by the puzzles on the laptop, while his 5-year-old brother, Sai, sat next to him, fidgeting.
The use of these word-command blocks to simplify coding logic stems largely from the work of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, which introduced a visual programming language called Scratch in 2007. It claims a following of millions of users, but mostly outside the schools.
Then, in 2013, came Code.org, which borrowed basic Scratch ideas and aimed to spread the concept among schools and policy makers. Computer programming should be taught in every school, said Hadi Partovi, the founder of Code.org and a former executive at Microsoft. He called it as essential as “learning about gravity or molecules, electricity or photosynthesis.”
Among the 20,000 teachers who Code.org says have signed on is Alana Aaron, a fifth-grade math and science teacher in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. She heard about the idea late last year at a professional development meeting and, with her principal’s permission, swapped a two-month earth sciences lesson she was going to teach on land masses for the Code.org curriculum.
“Computer science is big right now — in our country, the world,” she said. “If my kids aren’t exposed to things like that, they could miss out on potential opportunities and careers.”
We are teaching them to code, however, not so much as an end in itself but because our world has morphed: so many of the things we once did with elements such as fire and iron, or tools such as pencil and paper, are now wrought in code. We are teaching coding to help our kids craft their future.
How do you convert a 2-D drawing to an "AutoCad" design? AutoCad stands for "AutoDesk Computer Aided Design." In 1982, AutoDesk invented a software program to help architects and design engineers draw blueprints on a computer to very exact specifications. AutoCAD is still the industry leader in CAD software, used by firms across the globe. The basics you learn in STEM will apply to the more detailed software you will learn in high school.
The computer takes your imputed shapes and instantaneously converts them into design manipulatives. You can then edit these shapes and easily convert them into a shape for printing on a 3-D plastics printer.
This link will take you to YouTube site, where you can watch the various videos on how to use 123D Design app. The techniques on the videos will also apply to use on the classroom Dell computers.
“STEM” is the acronym of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. However, when you pull that first layer away, you reveal the most elaborate puzzle in the education world. Most educators know what STEM stands for, but how many really know what it means?
STEM education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with real-world lessons as students apply science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in contexts that make connections between school, community, work, and the global enterprise enabling the development of STEM literacy and with it the ability to compete in the new economy. (Tsupros, 2009)
This definition raises many issues, though. My high school Advanced Placement composition teacher would be appalled by defining a term by using the same term in the definition! How do you define competing? Technology? Global enterprise? This definition is so vague that it leaves much up for interpretation.
When STEM was first introduced as “the next big thing,” the thoughts behind it basically centered around two issues. First, there was (and still is) a growing concern that the United States was not preparing a sufficient number of students, teachers, and practitioners in the STEM fields. Second, our industries need more workers in these fields due to an aging workforce and an increasingly innovative world market. STEM is constantly divided into these two categories: STEM education and STEM workforce, and rarely are the two discussed in conjunction.
As educators, we seem to consider STEM singularly from an educational perspective in which success in science and mathematics is increasingly important and technology and engineering are “integrated” when appropriate. When you start to divide STEM by subject (the silo approach), it gets even murkier. Can science and mathematics alone be STEM? Does using an electronic whiteboard during a lesson make it a STEM lesson? When my kindergarteners are playing with building blocks, is that a STEM center? If you ask 10 different science, mathematics, technology, and engineering teachers to define STEM, each will give you a very different and unique answer.
Inside education circles concerned with STEM, the silo approach creates a very incoherent conversation, yet one with growing urgency. A colleague of mine stated STEM was really trying to fill the jobs of the future. I would agree with that statement if it was made five years ago; today, though, I argue the future is already here, and we are unprepared. Educationally, we imagine STEM instruction as creating the next innovators, the superstars. We look for highly proficient students and try to increase their interest in these fields so that we develop the innovators of the future. Our goal is to get them through high school prepared for rigorous college coursework so they can become the leaders of tomorrow’s industry. Educationally we see STEM as a very specialized, high-tech field we are grooming our students to join. Industry, on the other hand, has a very unique view.
STEM from the workforce perspective is significantly different and more about grooming workers with 21st-century skills who are ready to jump right in. When teachers think about technology, we envision computers, touchscreens, and digital data-collection tools. This view differs from how technology was considered when STEM was first being discussed. Technology in industry is about thinking outside the box and using materials to solve problems. I was once told that scissors were a form of technology, and for industrial purposes, they really are. They were created to solve a problem: how to cut something more precisely. Problem-solving and developing quick and cost-effective solutions on the go are what industry is seeking in the next-generation workforce.
Biochemistry, engineering, computer programming, and emerging technologies are just a small sliver of what the STEM workforce needs. These positions require the most skills, and we need to continue developing students for these specialized fields, but we cannot forget the larger segment of industry that relies on STEM. Construction, transportation, and even the hospitality industry rely on a STEM-developed workforce. Whether it’s understanding how an engine works, or plotting trucking routes, the advanced level of technical knowledge and problem-solving capability needed for these positions have become obstacles that did not exist 10 years ago. This explains why industries view career and technical education as a key piece of STEM education. Students must be prepared for any path they choose in life, whether it is directly into a STEM career or studying a specialized STEM field in college.
I would amend Lander’s definition slightly: “Everybody who thinks they know what it means, knows what it means within their field, and everybody else is defining it to fit their own needs.” I think it is truly impossible to define STEM because it means so much for so many different groups of people. Whether it is researchers, science and mathematics teachers, the aerospace industry, or the construction industry, they all have one thing in common: It is about moving forward, solving problems, learning, and pushing innovation to the next level.
