Conference paper
The Effect of CS Unplugged on Middle-School Students' Views of CS
Iticse 2009: Proceeding Of The 2009 Acm Sigse Annual Conference On Innovation And Technology In Computer Science Education, pp.99-103
Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, 14th (Paris France, 06/Jul/2009 - 09/Jul/2009)
Jul/2009
Abstract
Many students hold incorrect views of what computer science (CS) is, and they have negative attitudes towards the field. In order to address these difficulties, a series of learning activities called Computer Science Unplugged was developed by Bell et al. [3]. These activities expose young people to central concepts in CS in an entertaining way, without requiring a computer. Using questionnaires and interviews, we examined the effect of the activities on middle-school students' views of CS, specifically, on their views of: (a) the nature of CS; (b) the characteristics of computer scientists and work in CS; (c) the variety of employment in CS. The results indicate that-although the students generally understood what CS is-they perceived the computer as the essence of CS and not primarily as a tool, contrary to the intention of the CS Unplugged activities. We suggest additions to the activities intended to increase the change in the views of CS that students have.
Details
- Title
- The Effect of CS Unplugged on Middle-School Students' Views of CS
- Creators
- Rivka Taub (null) - 972WIS_INST___78Mordechai Ben-Ari (null) - 972WIS_INST___78Michal Armoni (null) - 972WIS_INST___78
- Resource Type
- Conference paper
- Publication Details
- Iticse 2009: Proceeding Of The 2009 Acm Sigse Annual Conference On Innovation And Technology In Computer Science Education, pp.99-103; Jul/2009
- Number of pages
- 5
- Publisher
- ACM
- Language
- English
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1145/1562877.1562912
- Conference
- Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, 14th (Paris France, 06/Jul/2009 - 09/Jul/2009)
- Grant note
- NA
- Record Identifier
- 993267665003596
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