Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

College Teaching And Ai, Leo Irakliotis

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Artificial Intelligence will reshape the way we assess student learning in ways that no one has prepared us for.

Finding Approximate Pythagorean Triples (And Applications To Lego Robot Building), Ronald I. Greenberg, Matthew Fahrenbacher, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This assignment combines programming and data analysis to determine good combinations of side lengths that approximately satisfy the Pythagorean Theorem for right triangles. This can be a standalone exercise using a wide variety of programming languages, but the results are useful for determining good ways to assemble LEGO pieces in robot construction, so the exercise can serve to integrate three different units of the Exploring Computer Science high school curriculum: "Programming", "Computing and Data Analysis", and "Robotics". Sample assignment handouts are provided for both Scratch and Java programmers. Ideas for several variants of the assignment are also provided.

Using Magic To Teach Computer Programming, Dale F. Reed, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Magic can be used in project-based instruction to motivate students and provide a meaningful context for learning computer programming. This work describes several magic programs of the “Choose a Number” and “Pick a Card” varieties, making connections to underlying computing concepts.

Magic tricks presented as demonstrations and programming assignments elicit wonder and captivate students’ attention, so that students want to understand and replicate the work to show it to friends and family members. Capturing student interest and curiosity motivates them to learn the underlying programming concepts.

Two “Choose a Number” programs are shown where the computer is able to identify …

An Examination Of Factors Correlating With Course Failure In A High School Computer Science Course, Steven Mcgee, Ronald I. Greenberg, Lucia Dettori, Andrew M. Rasmussen, Randi Mcgee-Tekula, Jennifer Duck, Erica Wheeler

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Across the United States, enrollment in high school computer science (CS) courses is increasing. These increases, however, are not spread evenly across race and gender. CS remains largely an elective class, and fewer than three-fourths of the states allow it to count towards graduation. The Chicago Public Schools has sought to ensure access for all students by recently enacting computer science as a high school graduation requirement. The primary class that fulfills the graduation requirement is Exploring Computer Science (ECS), a high school introductory course and professional development program designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around CS …

Rpp Panel Chicago: History Of Cafecs, Lucia Dettori, Dale Reed, Steven Mcgee, Don Yanek, Andrew Rasmussen, Ronald Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Separating Markup From Text, Ronald I. Greenberg, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

As more and more online versions of Humanities texts are created, it is becoming commonplace to embed elaborate formatting, for example, through the use of HTML. But this can interfere with computerized analyses of the original text. While it may seem, at first, straightforward to simply strip markup from text, this is not the reality. Many digital texts add things that appear to be legitimate content according to the markup syntax, for example, line numbers, and even apart from this issue, existing tools for stripping markup produce inconsistent results. Apart from adopting and enforcing strict conventions for adding markup to …

Educational Magic Tricks Based On Error-Detection Schemes, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Magic tricks based on computer science concepts help grab student attention and can motivate them to delve more deeply. Error detection ideas long used by computer scientists provide a rich basis for working magic; probably the most well known trick of this type is one included in the CS Unplugged activities. This paper shows that much more powerful variations of the trick can be performed, some in an unplugged environment and some with computer assistance. Some of the tricks also show off additional concepts in computer science and discrete mathematics.

Open Source Classroom Polling (Interactive Response) Facility, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The contents of the UNIX directory resulting from unzipping the .zip file provide a demonstration of a simple polling facililty that instructors can use in class any time that students have access to a web browser. This is a good way to have students work problems and see to what extent they are converging towards correct answers.

Unlike other polling facilities, this one is completely free without any restrictions on number of simultaneous users, etc. It also allows a feature most polling facilities do not in that it may be used for completely free-form answers, and the instructor can still …