Partnerships may choose to do a class project if they please. The project will be for extra credit and can add up to one letter grade worth of extra credit to partner scores. The project can be a Scratch game program, a position paper on learning and teaching programming, a position paper on using programming when teaching mathematics, or perhaps some other activity (come see me before starting work on it). Additional details are provided below.
This activity is not required and will not affect the final grade cutoff points. If your partnership chooses to complete one of the activities, a presentation of your work will be expected, hopefully during class but perhaps only to the instructor. Credit awarded will depend on the quality and complexity of the work and the demonstrated understanding of work produced.
One option for this activity is to produce a game program written in Scratch. (Check with me if you would like to program something different.) The first step in this assignment is to decide on your game. Some ideas you might draw from are:
Hopefully you have an idea or one is sparked by one of these examples. Talk with your partner(s) or friends. The program you plan and implement should include the elements below. (Note, these elements assume a game program. If you have something else in mind, feel free to contact me to discuss what equivalences for your work would exits.)
Feel free to discuss your project with friends, classmates, and the instructor. Seek help (from the instructor) when difficulties arise that you are unable to solve. I am happy to discuss your program.
The idea is that you reflect on the topic and identify some position or conclusion you have reached regarding the teaching and learning of programming in elementary and middle schools. This paper is to identify the position/conclusion and then justify it based on what you have studied about teaching and learning and programming while a student at college.
You will likely need to state your beliefs about teaching and learning in general and/or with respect to elementary and middle schoolers of some specific level you hope to teach. However, your beliefs need to be grounded in fact or accepted theory or well thought out individual theory. You will be expected to include grounding for the beliefs you express.
The position you take need not be "positive" about the teaching and learning of programming. For example, you may believe children in K-3 cannot learn to program. You would be expected to discuss the characteristics of such children and of programming that make the two incompatible. Keep in mind, however, that simplified versions of Scratch exist for younger children, i.e., you are talking about programming in general, not the Scratch you experienced in particular.
This is not technically a research paper because it does not require you to find and use references. Other than that, however, it should be written as a research paper—be well organized; identify major (and minor) points and fully explain/justify them; proceed point-by-point to the overall conclusion; be proofed and revised; etc. Unsupported or unexplained beliefs are to be avoided.
The paper should be general but include examples to help clarify or support points being made or argued.
Feel free to discuss your project with friends, classmates, and the instructor. Seek help (from the instructor) when difficulties arise that you are unable to solve. I am happy to discuss your topic with you.
Since this is a paper much of the information above about learning and teaching programming can be applied here. You are to describe how programming can be used to aid in the teaching of mathematics (and why) or take the position that one should not attempt to use programming in teaching mathematics and explain why. As above, beliefs about the students learning mathematics, applicability (or inapplicability) of programming, etc. should be fully described and supported/explained. And, again, while not truly a research paper, it should be written like one.
The paper should be general but include examples to help clarify or support points being made or argued.
Feel free to discuss your project with friends, classmates, and the instructor. Seek help (from the instructor) when difficulties arise that you are unable to solve. I am happy to discuss your topic with you.
I will produce a web page to share all the extra credit work with the intent that we examine it during the last week of class. Thus, the due date for submitting something will be Tuesday, April 24 at 1:00 pm. Submissions that do not arrive in time for sharing with the class will receive reduced credit.
To submit extra credit, send me an e-mail message with the following characteristics:
east@cs.uni.edu.sb2 file) or paper (.pdf file)Additionally, each partner is to send me a partnership assessment e-mail message:
east@cs.uni.eduNote that the assessment messages are to be individual, not shared or discussed with the partner. Also, various factors can and should figure into your assessment.
Remember, this is not a required assignment and it will not affect cutoff points when assigning grades. Be aware that just submitting something does not guarantee that any extra credit will be awarded and certainly not that the top amount of extra credit. I envision awarding 1, 4, 7, 10, or 13 points of extra credit depending on whether I judge the work to be poor (F), marginal (D), okay (C), good (B), or excellent (A). A similar value for the submission message will be determined and the average of the two will form an overall score. Partnership messages may affect individual scores.