From dchinn@u.washington.edu Wed Mar 22 15:29:15 2006
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:29:10 -0800
From: Donald Chinn <dchinn@u.washington.edu>
To: disc-commons@u.washington.edu
Subject: [Disc-commons] ideas for collaborative projects next year

Commoners,
  At the Institute of Technology/CTC meeting last Friday,
there was a discussion of the Disciplinary Commons
(what it is, how it is going, what it has done for those
involved).  At the end there was an open discussion about
what whether the Disciplinary Commons or something
like it should be done next year.
  Everyone who was there who is involved in the DC
(Jeff, Janet, John, Michael) said that the feature that made
the DC so compelling and rewarding was the collaborative
nature of it.  So, the next natural question was what sort
of project could we do next year that was collaborative
and addressed some need or issue.


  I went to Portland last weekend, and I visited two places
that are relevant here.  I first went to OMSI (the Oregon
Museum of Science and Industry).  It is a great place with
hands-on activities and general immersion in science.
Everything from building bridges, a water tank to simulate
waves the shoreline, the human embryo exhibit, rocketry,
the earth science, chemistry, aerodynamics, etc., etc., etc.
I specifically was looking for things associated with computer
science.  I found one: a Lego robot that could be controlled
by putting a colored card under a sensor.  The color of the
card determined whether the robot would go forward,
backward, or to one direction.  There was another "hands-on"
display where you had to add components (CPU, RAM, graphics
card, memory, etc.) to a fake computer made out of wood.
As you added each item, a computer screen would tell you what
that component does.
  To add to the humiliation of our field, I went to the museum
store to look for computer science-y things.  Amidst the
erector sets, telescopes, chemistry kits, biology kits, puzzle
books, etc., I found circuit building kit (300 activities for ages
8 to 108!), but that's all.

  Then I went to Powell's Books, which is a mammoth book
store that takes up an entire city block and has 4 floors.
(I heard a few years ago that it is the fourth (or is it the
first?) largest bookstore in the US or in the world.)  They
have a massive education section: about 4 to 5 shelves
on higher education, many more shelves on general education,
and a massive number of shelves devoted to activity books,
"what your nth-grader should know", etc.
  Looking at the activity books, I found lots of stuff for
physics, chemistry, biology, and general science, but nothing
for computer science.  The closest thing there were books
on technology in general (trains, bridges, etc.).


  I am a bit appalled at the situation.  On the one hand, we
at the universities say that students are unprepared for
computer science.  For example, students are poor in math
and writing.  On the other hand, we are doing very little to
promote computer science -- to explain what it is and what
some of the key ideas of computer science are -- so that
students are more motivated to become better at math,
logic, and writing in the first place.  So, K-12 can rightfully
blame higher education for not providing CS students to
pursue education (why should they, when they can earn
in industry 3 to 4 times the salary of a K-12 teacher?) and
not providing K-12 instructors the teaching materials
needed to promote computer science.

  So, as a candidate project, perhaps we can assemble a
group of instructors (like this year) who are interested in
developing middle school and high school activities that
can be used in the classroom.  I envision us developing
the activities and then actually going to the schools to do
them.  Hopefully, teachers can then pick up on the idea
and do it themselves the next year.  Here's a rough time
line for what might happen:

Fall Quarter: literature search, an understanding of
institutional and student contexts.  Initial contact
with the schools.
Winter Quarter: actual development of the materials/
activities.  (Just in time for submission to SIGCSE ...)
Continued contact with the schools; setting of dates
for visits.
Spring Quarter: going out to the schools and doing it.
Reflection and assessment.

The Fall Quarter activities are similar to those that we
have done in the DC, and we can leverage the fact
that most of us have used CS 1 as our object of
analysis in the DC.  Also, we would not be starting
with a blank slate.  Here are some resources we can
start with:
1. Computer Science Unplugged
(computer science activities for kids)
http://unplugged.canterbury.ac.nz/
2. CSTA (Computer Science Teacher's Association)
They have a link to the ACM K-12 model curriculum.
http://csta.acm.org/
(click on the ACM K-12 model curriculum link)
3. The work of Steve Wolfman and Dan Garcia on
Kinesthetic Learning in CS.  Here's a paper:
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~wolf/papers/sigcse-2004-kla-special-session.pdf
There are activities for college students related to
sorting or hashing that have a kinesthetic aspect,
but it would be interesting to develop activities for
K-12 students.


There would need to be quite a bit of coordination and
contact with schools.  Perhaps our K-12 coordinator at
the Institute could help here.

I imagine that we would come up with 3 original activities
and that we would go to some number of schools (a
number that doesn't put too much of a strain on our
schedules).  I suspect that two people would do the
activity at a school, where one is the "primary" person
running the show and the other is more of an "observer".

I believe developing K-12 activities will inform our own
practice at the college level.


ok.  Enough babbling.  Anyone think this might be feasible?
(I personally think this is time-intensive, mostly in the Spring
when we run around doing the activities.)  Or, any other
ideas for some collaborative project?

-- Donald

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