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Create smooth transitions and interesting contexts for CS students

Status 
In progress
Doug Blank

Dates

Activity Start Date 
November 19, 2013
Target Completion Date 
November 19, 2017
Goal statement 
Create materials for students to use to easily transition into CS1, and beyond. Materials should including interesting contexts, such as robots and art, to attract them to authentic and stimulating topics.

Meta

Organization
Bryn Mawr College
Department
Computer Science
Alliance
Academic Alliance
UserID
dblank
City
Bryn Mawr
State
Pennsylvania
Activity Description 

We have developed software that allows multiple languages to use robots with cameras, and make interesting art, animations, and games.

Lessons Learned 
One of the first lessons that we have learned is that robots can be engaging for women in a first-year college CS course. We weren't sure this would be the case. However, we this may depend on careful design of the software and hardware. See http://calicoproject.org for more details.
Goal tag(s) 
Recruiting
Retaining

Comments

Submitted by sharon.mason@rit.edu on February 7, 2014

What kinds of art, animations and games did the students make?

Submitted by pmorreale on April 4, 2014

What type of robots did you use?

Submitted by dblank on April 4, 2014

We use the Scribbler robot and a addon board sold by betterbots.com. You can see more about the project at wiki.roboteducation.org

Submitted by dblank on April 4, 2014

The students made all kinds of art and animations. Here is a sampling of ideas:

http://calicoproject.org/Calico_Nifty_Projects

Submitted by sharon.mason@rit.edu on April 23, 2014

This looks very interesting. Was this part of a transition class? or did it run as a workshop?