Institute for Computing
Education (ICE)
at Georgia Tech
Fall 2004 BIT Conference
ICE Goals

Train more CS-AP teachers
• Start by training teachers for the Prog
and Sys Management course

even with no experience
• When ready train for CS-AP course

Increase the number and diversity of
CS students
• Interesting curriculum
• Help with recruiting
Why?


The U.S. Department of Labor predicts
that despite the recent decline in the IT
industry, computer software engineers and
computer systems designers will be
among the fastest growing occupations in
2002-2012
The percentage of women has been
declining
• High of about 30% to about 12% now
Summer 2004

1 week AP workshop
• 17 teachers attended

2 week Programming and Systems
Management Workshop
• 30 teachers attended
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Both workshops were residential
• Georgia Tech Hotel

Most teachers received laptops
Prog and Sys Workshop Content

Media Computation
• Manipulate Pictures and Sounds
• 2d Drawing
• Animation

Demos of current research
• Robot dogs, aging in place
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
Talk on diversity
Student panel discussion
Workshop CS Content
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Introduction to object-oriented concepts
Keywords and operators
Primitive and object variables
Class and object methods
Arrays
Iteration (for and while loops)
Conditionals (if, if-else, if-else-if, and, or)
Graphical User Interfaces
Input/Output and Exceptions
Debugging
Goals for Content

Motivating
• For students and teachers

Creative
• Open-ended assignments

Authentic tasks
• Start with what students use computers
for (pictures, sounds, text, web, games)
Negate an Image
Mirroring
Rotation
Create a Collage
Remove ‘Red Eye’
Sepia-Tint
Chromakey
Prog and Sys Results

Survey results
• 70.37%
• 96.30%
• 88.89%
• 44.44%


of teachers felt more capable
got ideas on what to teach
got ideas on how to teach
felt ready to teach in fall
Teachers with no experience wanted
a slower pace
Some of the teachers are using the
content
Quotes

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I didn’t want to take this workshop. I
thought it would be boring and too mathbased, but I am having fun.
My kids won’t believe that I am
programming for fun.
This was the best (non-college credit)
workshop I have ever taken.
The demos were awesome. I wish I had
thought ahead & had a video camera to
record demos.
Resources

Collaborative Website
• http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt

Mailing list
• gacs-teachers-psm@cc.gatech.edu
• Gacs-teachers-ap@cc.gatech.edu

Field trips
• Contact Kristin Vadas
• vadas@cc.gatech.edu

Summer camps for students
• Contact Kris Nagel
• kris@cc.gatech.edu
Summer 2005 Workshops
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2 week Prog and Sys for beginners
June 13-16 and 20-23
1 week Prog and Sys for
intermediate June 27-30
2 week Prepare for AP July 11-14
and 18-21
1 week Intermediate AP July 25-28