Teaching CS Principles with App Inventor
ACMSE 2012
Tuscaloosa, AL - March 29, 2012
Jeff Gray, Ph.D. - Associate Professor
University of Alabama
Department of Computer Science
gray@cs.ua.edu
http://www.cs.ua.edu/~gray
Overview
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General Introduction
CS Principles Discussion -2:40-3:30
App Inventor Introduction - 3:30pm-4:20pm
Break - 4:20pm-4:40pm
App Inventor and CS Education Panel
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4:40pm-5:30pm
Quick Poll
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How many…
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…faculty in higher ed?
…students (ugrads, grads)?
…K-12 educators?
…have heard of CS Principles in detail?
…have used App Inventor?
…have plans to introduce a CS Principles course
at your school (either K-12 or higher ed)?
…are members of CSTA?
…are submitting a CE21 grant this April?
CS Principles Overview
Demand for Computer Science Grads
Demand for Computer Science Grads
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National Job Outlook
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According to the National Association of Colleges
and Employers (NACE)
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$64,210 is the average starting salary for computer
science degrees in the class of 2011 (among highest
starting salaries); 3.7% increase over 2010 offers
Computer Science tops list of best major for jobs with
the highest number of job offers per major (2.8 job
offers per major!)
A “Why Study Computer Science” set of
outreach slides with additional information like
this is available at
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http://www.cs.ua.edu/~gray/outreach/why-cstalk/why-cs-talk.ppt
Local Success vs National Disaster
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From Chris Stephenson, CSTA President
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In the last few years the commitment to improving
computer science education has resulted in pockets of
excellence:
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New tools (Alice, Scratch, Kodu, App Inventor, …)
New Curricula (Exploring Computer Science, Media Computation…)
New ways of thinking about equity and engagement
But in reality, AP is the only program that has national
reach, support, and consequence (and sometimes
state funding)
If we are going to achieve a true renaissance in CS
education in K-12 we need to make both curriculum
and policy changes at the state and national level
The Harsh Realities
Chris Stephenson, CSTA President
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Unless we increase the number of students taking high
school CS, our enrollments will continue to languish at
the post-secondary level (don’t let the recent bump fill
you with false hope)
States are increasing the number of math and science
credits students must have in order to graduate,
reducing the chances that students can/will take elective
courses such as computer science
In states where CS is part of Career and Technical
Education, there are pressing certification questions.
Challenges with Current CS AP
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One of College Board’s lowest participating
exam
Very much a “Programming”-centered
course, with much content covering syntax
and semantics of a specific language (Java)
Deep and less broad
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Full range of impact of computing could be
missed, as well as exciting contexts to motivate
students
Many in-service teachers lack content knowledge
to teach current AP exam
Current State of AP Coverage
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Number of schools passing AP CS Audit
State
Alabama
Number of Schools
Less than 8
(out of > 460)
Tennessee
16
South Carolina
18
North Carolina
28
Florida
69
Georgia
78
New Jersey
133
California
165
Texas
271
Current State of AP:
Two-state comparison
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Alabama population, ages 15-18: 220k
Over 3700 students took AP US History
Nearly 120 took the AP Latin exam
+: Alabama has over 4 times the national average
of African American students participating
The Importance of the Principles Effort
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From Chris Stephenson, CSTA President:
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There is no better time than now, and to fail in
this commitment is to fail permanently as a
discipline in the K-12 system
As a community, we too often begin at what is
wrong and tear down, rather than figure out
what is right and build up
The recent bump in enrollments at some
colleges/universities is more than balanced by
the closing of programs at others and this is
no time to cut back on our efforts
What you can do….
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Consider attestation form
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http://www.collegeboard.com/html/computersci
ence/index.html
Chris Stephenson, CSTA President:
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We need a concerted and genuine
commitment from all educators (K-16), all
organizations, and all corporations to support
the new CS Principles course and to work
together to help get teachers ready with
workshops, resources, standards,
relationships
Initial Attestation Coverage
From Amy Briggs, Middlebury College
The Two Rounds of Pilots
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Pilot I had 5 universities and 5 high schools
Pilot II currently has 10 universities and 10
high schools, shown below
The CS Principles Curriculum Framework
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CS Principles groups
content ideas (Big Ideas)
with various skillsets (CT
practices)
The current Pilots
participate in deep
evaluation of content
coverage and skillset
development from weekly
assessments
Students evaluated
several times throughout
semester
Source for CS Principles Figures: Amy Briggs
CS Principles Big Ideas
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Creativity
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Computer science enables
creative expression of
innovative ideas
Abstraction
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Abstraction is a key
problem solving and
organization concept need
to provide scale to complex
solutions
CS Principles Big Ideas
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Data
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Students need to understand
the growing trend of “Big
Data” and what that means
to their daily lives; great
context for introducing data
mining
Algorithms
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Algorithms are the
foundation for expressing a
computational solution
CS Principles Big Ideas
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Programming
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Programming is the skill that
gives a voice to expressing a
computational problem
Internet
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Students should develop an
understanding of “under the
hood” concepts that they
take for granted every day
CS Principles Big Ideas
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Impact
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Computer scientists do
more than set behind
cubes; our solutions
foster the world’s
economies and bring
value to all areas of life;
University of Washington
videos:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/WhyCSE
Opportunities for Impact
“… the software industry is going to make
more breakthroughs in these next 10 years
than it's made in the last 30 … software is
really going to transform not just what we
think about as the computer industry, but
the way that everything is done …”
Re-architecting
the Internet
Harnessing
parallelism
Wreckless
driving
Quantum computing
Prosthetics /
augmentation /
access
Transforming all fields
of science and engineering
Transforming the
nation’s defense
Impact: Software is Everywhere
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98% of all microprocessors control devices other
than desktop computers
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Automobiles, airplanes, televisions, copiers, razors…
These devices also need software and often
require strong technical skills to develop
Coverage of Big Ideas in Pilot 1
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Pilot 1 coverage (from Amy Briggs)
Pilot II data still being collected
Computational Thinking Practices
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http://www.ctillustrated.com/
Connecting computing
Developing computational artifacts
Abstracting
Analyzing problems and artifacts
Communicating
Working in a team
Future College Board Support
Lien Diaz, College Board
Summary of Alabama Principles Course
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Split between BYOB (Snap!) and App Inventor
Some CS Unplugged Mixed In
Readings
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Books: Hal’s Blown to Bits, Wolber et al. App
Inventor book
Papers: Wing’s Computational Thinking, Kramer’s
Is Abstraction the Key to Computing?
Grades:
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Six individual assignments (two short essays)
Two team projects (presentation, implementation)
Three exams and 7 very short quizzes
Sample Projects
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Homework Examples
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Hangman App
Essays: Reflective essay on student major and
CS; research and analyze a computer simulation
model
Team Projects
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BYOB
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Almost all were game variations (Example)
App Inventor
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Rendezvous planner
Tornado damage assessment app for Civil Engineers
Textbook buying broker
A Look at Our Syllabus….
Collaboration with High School Peer
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Bill Cowles, Booker T. Washington HS
Montgomery, AL
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Almost exactly a 2 hour drive from Tuscaloosa
Shared syllabus, homework ideas, various
lectures
Restriction on meeting times
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Visit and talk to Bill’s class
Initial planning during CS4HS summer workshop
in 2011
Weekend AP training session
Bi-weekly email
Things that we felt were a success
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Creativity Soared
Team Projects Highly Collaborative
Diversity
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17 different majors across 29 students (first essay)
Broad interest from Freshman to Seniors
13 of 29 students were women or males from
underrepresented populations
Sustainability
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Strong interest on campus to offer again in Fall ’12
High School teachers in Alabama want help in
pursuing an early adopter Pilot for 2012-2013
Things that did not work so well
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Rushed to cover all CS Principles
topics in a
3-hour course
Recruiting issues (temporary)
Big Data idea never finalized
(but almost ready)
Four students dropped the course
before midterm
Some team project ideas were
unrealistic
1 case of cheating
Tendency to revert to programming
Future Principles Challenges
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Common exam across multiple teaching
approaches (Scratch, Alice, JavaScript)
Reaching the goal of 10k teachers who can
cover the content of this material
Building the pathway from K-12 to higher ed
course mappings (perhaps not so hard)
Our own Future Effort at UA….
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Connection from App Inventor -> Java Bridge
-> Standard Android SDK in Java
Through collaboration with A+ College
Ready, we are proposing an idea that will
train 50 new teachers to introduce CS
Principles over the next three years (leading
up to the first expected offering of the course)
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Several in the audience have already committed
interest to this
The new CS104 course will be a stable
offering each Fall at UA
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Potential to serve in-service education students
For More Info
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CS Principles Site
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http://www.csprinciples.org/
Links to past Pilots
College Board Site
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http://www.collegeboard.com/html/computerscience/index.html
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Upcoming issue of Inroads on CS Principles
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I am happy to share results from our Alabama
Pilot (syllabus, exams, projects)
Questions on CS Principles?
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Please note, I cannot speak for the College
Board or the CS Principles PI’s, but glad to
share ideas from my own experiences in
teaching the 2011-2012 Pilot
App Inventor Introduction
Observation: Teaching CS – 1980s style
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Typical example was text-based, trivial, and
uninspiring
Motivation: New and Exciting Contexts
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Media Computation
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Robots
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Programming in a more exciting context by
manipulating multimedia artifacts
Lego NXT
2D/3D Animation Environments
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Alice, Scratch, AgentSheets
Motivation: Newest Context
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Teen smartphone penetration around 62%1
Novel ways to engage through the “creative
hook” and tinkering
“I wish I had an app for that”
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Social networking and
crowd sourcing a daily
activity among teens
Increasing adoption of
smartphones in science
and medical applications
1http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/168085/nielsen-smartphone-penetration-reaches-48.html
App Inventor Overview
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Purpose
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Teaching
Prototyping
Components of App Inventor
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Designer
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GUI builder
Block Editor
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Provide behavior behind the GUI
Based on MIT OpenBlocks and Scratch
App Inventor Overview
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2007: Open Blocks Java Library developed
as Masters thesis of Ricarose Roque at MIT
Hal Abelson becomes visiting faculty member
at Google
2009: App Inventor Pilot begins in 2009
2011: Google closes Google Labs
2011: MIT announces new Center for Mobile
Learning
February 2012: New App Inventor server
available at MIT
App Inventor Overview
Designer
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Provides a WYSIWYG editor for designing the
visual parts of the app
Also provides ability to attach non-visual
components
Blocks Editor
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Provides an ability to give
behavior to an app; the
programming part
Typical and expected basic
predefined constructs (logic,
conditionals, iteration)
Ability to refer to the
components and their
properties from the Designer
Very similar to Scratch
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Built on Open Blocks library
from MIT
For more info…
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MIT Center for Mobile Learning main site
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Dave Wolber’s App Inventor Site
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http://www.appinventor.org/
The App Inventor Repository
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http://appinventor.mit.edu/
Educator’s Site
Links to many Google Newsgroups
http://www.tair.info/
Three quality books on the topic
App Inventor Live Demo…
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Traditional Blocks Language
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Overview of environment
Hands-on app building
Samples from CS Principles Course
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Fusion tables, stock ticker lookup, mole mash, notext
Quick Overview of App Inventor Java Bridge
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Provides a Java .jar file for accessing the App
Inventor components and writing Java apps in
Eclipse (much easier than standard Android SDK)
UA student Chris Hodapp extending work initiated
by Josh Swank to provide a translator from Blocks
to Java
App Inventor and CS Education Panel
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A virtual panel with leading CS Educators
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Hal Abelson – MIT
Dave Wolber – University of San Francisco
Michelle Friend – Stanford University
A Google Hangout will begin at 4:40pm CST