Embracing the SPIRIT of Computing
Alka Harriger
Purdue University
USA
harrigea@purdue.edu
Abstract: Increasing student interest in STEM remains an important goal for America. Fortunately,
it is possible to attract students to STEM through non-STEM teachers who use technology and
computing tools in interesting ways while teaching their subject matter. This paper will describe the
key elements of a professional development program designed to equip middle and high school
teachers with the skills necessary to implement Alice-based lessons in their classes. Teachers also
learned about computing career opportunities as well as used many other computing tools. Alice is
a three-dimensional programming environment that can be used to create engaging, interactive
stories and games. Although the content of the lessons were in the subject areas of the teachers, by
using Alice the teachers exposed students to a fun and useful computing application. Teacher’s
feedback showed that their implementations resulted in improved student performance in their
subject area and increased interest in computing.
Background
National educational standards urge that high school graduates, irrespective of their future career paths, be
adequately prepared with technology skills to be productive in the digital age (International Society for Technology
in Education, 2011). Unfortunately, America has fallen behind in equipping students with the basic computing
knowledge and skills that are needed to be successful (Wilson, Sudol, Stephenson, & Stehlik, 2010). To further
exacerbate the situation, computer science education in K-12 has been on the decline (Carnegie Mellon University,
2010). Wilson, et.al. (2010) offered the following advice related to computing education:
“Quality instruction always depends on knowledgeable and well-prepared teachers, on
instructional materials that are engaging and carefully developed to enable student learning, and
adequate resources and infrastructure to support teachers and student learning.”
In an effort to reduce the declining interest nationwide in computing disciplines, particularly by female
students, the NSF-funded project at Purdue University called Surprising Possibilities Imagined and Realized through
Information Technology (SPIRIT) developed hands-on, activity-based programs to educate teachers of any subjects
about IT career opportunities and to show them how IT benefits society. SPIRIT's plan for addressing the
Information Technology (IT) gender gap is to change the negative perceptions of computing by demonstrating the
value IT provides to many facets of society.
The original NSF proposal identified five anticipated project outcomes:
1. Improve female students' understanding of the wide ranging career opportunities in IT.
2. Improve the attitudes of female students regarding the computing disciplines.
3. Increase the understanding of counselors regarding the wide ranging career opportunities in IT for
women.
4. Improve high school teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge on applying IT across STEM
disciplines.
5. Improve the attitudes of high school teachers regarding the IT career opportunities for women.
The SPIRIT Program – Teaching Alice
SPIRIT participants included high school students as well as middle and high school teachers and
counselors. All participants were taught how to use Alice, a 3D storyboarding tool, to convey visual information to
tell a story or facilitate instructional delivery of course material. Teacher participants completed a two-week summer
program and developed three lessons for their respective subject areas. After completing the summer program, the
teachers implemented their Alice-based lessons in their classroom during the school year and reported on their
students’ responses at each of the four in-service meetings at Purdue.
Figure 1 illustrates the schedule for the first week of the two-week program, which focused on teaching
teachers Alice and how to effectively employ Alice-based lessons into their classes.
Sunday
8:30 AM
9:00 AM
9:30 AM
10:00 AM
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Present THREE web
applications to support
collaboration &
assignment
submission. Classroom
Lesson Template.
Storyboarding.
Review
scenes &
tripods;
print; user
input.
Basic: review.
Advanced:
export to
video; userdefined
methods.
Finalize lesson for
presentation.
Teacher
presentations
with Alice world;
10 min to
present, 5 min Q
&A
DUE: presentation
lesson
DUE:
Challenge 3
10:30 AM
11:00 AM
Intro to Alice & tutorial
review.
11:30 AM
DUE:
Challenge 1
LUNCH
Formative
assessment
Troubleshooting
LUNCH
1:00 PM
Objects, methods, dotogether, Loop, do-inorder, properties,
setting up scenes,
dropping tripods,
billboards, 3D text.
1:30 PM
2:00 PM
2:30 PM
3:00 PM
If/else;
While; For;
Events;
Jane's
Simon
game.
Basic: project
to create
video.
Advanced:
functions &
project video
with new
features.
3:30 PM
4:00 PM
Teachers/Counselors
check-In
Another Jane game.
Teacher
presentations
with Alice world;
10 min to
present, 5 min Q
&A
Teacher
presentations with
Alice world; 10 min
to present, 5 min Q
&A
4:30 PM
5:00 PM
Complete preliminary
assessments
5:30 PM
6:00 PM
8:30 PM
DUE: Alice world
"Meet and Greet"
Dinner at local
restaurant
Webinar with WGBH
DUE:
DUE: Draft
DUE: Draft Lesson 2
Challenge 2
Lesson 1
Labs open for individual work.
Daily assignments should be submitted by 10 pm.
The FINAL three lessons are due on the last day of week two.
Preview Sunday
7/25
DUE: Draft
Lesson 3
Figure 1: WEEK 1 of professional development program for teachers
The subject areas of the teachers include math, science, business, computer programming, English,
Spanish, French, and consumer and family sciences. Although Alice was designed to teach programming concepts,
the SPIRIT approach taught Alice as a tool that could be used for conveying visual information in an engaging
fashion in much the same way as people use slideshow tools like PowerPoint.
The only constraint placed on the teacher’s lessons was the timing of the lessons. The acceptance packet
sent to teachers in advance of the summer program included the following instructions regarding preparatory work
for the lessons:
“As you get ready to attend SPIRIT, please review your course materials and plan to bring at least
three lessons with you that lend themselves to visual delivery of instruction. At least one of the
lessons should be able to be used during the first half of the first nine weeks of the school year. A
second lesson should be able to be used no later than the middle of the second nine weeks, and a
third lesson should be able to be used no later than the middle of the third nine weeks. During the
SPIRIT program, you will have the opportunity to convert these lessons to Alice-based lessons
and get feedback from a small group of high school students. You will also have the opportunity
to network with other teachers and guidance counselors to create multi-disciplinary lessons in
teams.”
This graduated timing was important so that teachers would have new information to share with the group
at each of the on-campus in-service meetings during the school year.
Teachers could use the Alice world for any part of their lesson. Some teachers developed their own sample
Alice worlds that aided in the delivery of a new course concept, such as using the Alice world as a novel attentiongetter or explaining a difficult concept visually. Some teachers created review-type Alice worlds that they could use
to quiz their students or make available to the students for them to review themselves. Some teachers assigned
students the task of creating an Alice world to explain their understanding of a specific newly taught concept. One
teacher created game-based Alice worlds that became favorites of the majority of teachers because she was able to
pull out her subject content, replace it with content in another subject of a colleague teacher, and the colleague
would have an instant review game for his/her students.
Each lesson plan included a sample Alice world and a completed classroom lesson plan document that
identified teacher’s name and contact information, subject, grade level, keywords, summary description of the
lesson, school standards addressed, length of lesson, Alice concepts employed, lesson objectives, prerequisites,
procedures, materials needed to complete the activity, evaluation, student assignment, and related references. In
order to ensure that all teachers’ submissions included this minimal content in a standard format, a Word document
lesson plan template and example using that template were shared with the teachers on the first day of the program.
Appendix A contains the lesson plan template. Illustrative sample completed lesson plans will be shared during the
presentation.
The lesson plan documents, Alice world(s), and any other related materials were uploaded to the SPIRIT
website by the teachers using one of the tools developed specifically for this purpose. Because Alice is a free tool
that any teacher (and student) can download, the availability of these teacher lessons one the SPIRIT website should
give other teachers interested in trying an Alice-based lesson a jump start. The website provides a search tool, so site
visitors can locate lessons by teacher subject, school, or geographic location; however, based on the positive
response by teachers at the in-service meetings to lessons by teachers in different subject teachers, site visitors are
encouraged to review lessons outside of their subjects.
The SPIRIT Program – Exciting Computing Careers
Students joined the teachers at the start of the second week where all participants completed a variety of
hands-on sessions employing different computing tools to different problems, many of which related directly to
societal benefit. Students also learned Alice, with help from the teachers, and then submitted a final Alice world by
week’s end. Figure 2 illustrates the second week of the program that was completed by teachers and students.
The parallel sessions during the afternoons were designed to help erase the negative stereotypes than many
people have about computing professionals such as they are geeks/nerds; they have to be geniuses; they cannot
relate to people; they work in a solitary setting; their work has limited value to society. A broad range of
applications were selected to create the message that computing touches all aspects of life, it can be fun, it involves
teamwork, it can address societal problems, and everyone can be successful in computing.
Presenters were asked to design their sessions to minimize the amount of lecturing and maximize the
interactive aspect to allow every participant to experience the application personally. Most selected tools that could
be downloaded at no cost, so presenters could access the tools later from home or school. Each activity challenged
the participants to solve an important problem using the specific tool being shared. Thus, when participants
completed SPIRIT, they not only understood the benefit that computing knowledge brings to society in general, but
they were also equipped with knowledge about several new tools that they could use for future projects when they
returned to school.
SPIRIT Results
The evaluator’s three-year report, which covered results from the 2008-2010 cohort groups, explained how
all five goals have been realized based on assessment data collected across three years of program implementation
(Forssen, & Moskal, 2011). This section highlights some of the results.
Sunday, 7/25
Monday, 7/26
8:30 - 9:30
Elevator
Speech
Tuesday, 7/27
8:30 - 9:30
new Alice
feature
Wednesday, 7/28
8:30 - 9:45
Entrepreneurship
Session
Thursday, 7/29
8:30 - 9:30
CS Unplugged
9:00 AM
9:00am‐9:45am
Camp counselors
check‐in
9:30‐10:40
Students: Intro
to Alice
Guidance
Counselors:
Meet with
university
advisors
9:45 - 10:45
IT Careers
Panel
9:50 - 10:45
new Alice feature
9:35 - 10:45
Work on
Projects
Friday, 7/30
Parallel
sessions:
8:30, 9:30,
10:30
1.Alice in a
cave
2.Complete
Final
Assessments
3.Work on
SPIRIT
projects
10:50 AM
10:00am‐2:30pm
Camp counselor
training & Lunch
After lunch-teachers
& counselors work
with their assigned
camp counselor to
create Alice world to
introduce
themselves to their
students (must
include 2+ scenes,
user input,
billboard)
1. Music and IT
1. Robot races
1. Social
Networking
2. Theatre and
IT
2. Pico Cricket
Design Studio
1. How IT
Supports the
Racing Industry
11:45 - 12:45
Celebration
luncheon
3. Moving
Beyond the
Screen:
Merging IT and
Fashion
through ETextiles
3. New
Applications
for Smart
Phones
2. Introduction
to Cyber
Forensics
12:45‐1:45
Project
demos
8:30 AM
Mon-Wed:
Parallel Sessions
10:50, 1:10 , 2:20, 3:45
Lunch noon-1 pm
break 3:25-3:40 pm
4. Alice work
session
2. How IT
Supports
Medicine
3. Intelligent
Human-Machine
Interaction
4. Alice work
session
4. Alice work
session
3. EV Grand
Prix and
Electric
Vehicles
4. Alice work
session
2:00‐4:00
Students
check‐out
(Teachers
and
counselors
final meeting)
2:30‐3:30pm Camp
counselors inspect
rooms
4:00‐5:00
Teachers,
counselors,
camp
counselors
check‐out
3:30pm‐5:00pm
Students check in &
complete pre‐study
assessments at
Shreve
4:55 PM
5:30 PM
6:30 PM
Student
orientation
5:45 pm Pizza party
& networking
activity for
EVERYONE
4:55‐5:25: ENAD 240/242
Complete Daily Assessments &
Submit Alice World by Thursday afternoon
5:30‐6:30 pm: Recreation Facility
Students only: Dinner at dorm
Figure 2: WEEK 2 of professional development program for teachers and student summer camp
Teacher feedback thus far has shown that Alice sparks student interest across many subjects and both
genders. Given that the gender distribution of students in courses other than computing, high-end math, and some
science courses is more equal, Alice has the potential for broadening participation in computing through a wide
variety of courses. Because these teachers believed that their Alice-based lessons not only sparked more interest in
computing, but also made their students better understand their own subject, they may be more likely to employ
Alice beyond the timetable of their SPIRIT commitment. Consider the case of a digital technology teacher from a
metropolitan school with 15% black students, 3% Hispanic students, 9% multi-racial students and where 57% of the
students receive free or reduced lunches. She used Alice to teach aperture & f-stop. In past classes, she reported a
failure rate of 70% on this subject. After she used Alice to teach the same material, there was only one student
earning a D and no students earned Fs. Further, only two earned Cs and everyone else earned As and Bs.
Interestingly, one of the students who earned a B shocked his mother and teacher of record. They both called the
digital technology teacher to find out how this happened and who/what Alice is?! There are many other similar cases
in other subjects. Based on the volume of similar, positive anecdotal cases, it seems prudent to incorporate
computational thinking activities using tools like Alice into a wide variety of subjects.
Another exciting observation by multiple teachers across all three years of the program has been that using
Alice appears to equalize learning across all levels (from gifted students to slow learners). Consider the case of an
advanced biology teacher from a large city school with 63% black students, 10% Hispanic students, 6% multi-racial
students and where 43% of the students receive free or reduced lunches. He described a situation involving a junior
female student in a class of seniors who was a bit of an outcast. She figured out how to use Alice and helped many
others in the class, which helped her become well-accepted by the other students. Another case to consider is a
Spanish teacher from a large city school with 63% black students, 10% Hispanic students, 6% multi-racial students
and where 43% of the students receive free or reduced lunches. He described how he fully integrated Alice into his
lesson plans and how his students kept adding to one Alice world each time instead of creating new worlds each
time. This approach allowed him to reach different learner types. For example, students who do not like oral
presentations are able to fit in and show off their work. Another teacher commented that when a Down’s Syndrome
student was presented with the Alice tool, he showed considerably greater interest in the activity. These consistent
teacher observations suggest that further study is warranted to determine if Alice could become a tool that can truly
break gender and ability boundaries to learning in the high school classroom.
The feedback from SPIRIT teachers suggests that Alice is a software tool that appeals to students of both
genders and at all levels of ability, and this gives non-computing teachers a way to use innovative computational
thinking skills to enrich student learning in their classrooms. In fact, one SPIRIT math teacher said, “Alice is the
gateway drug to computing.” If the computing discipline is able to get more non-computing teachers to use tools like
Alice, the SPIRIT teachers believe that more students may begin to consider study of computing in college more
seriously. Follow-up survey data from the 2010 student-cohort supports this notion.
The SPIRIT team attempted to collect follow-up data from students from all three years, but the response
rate from the first two cohorts was too small. A monetary incentive was used for the last cohort, and a much higher
response rate was realized. In 2010, 75 high school students (25 male and 50 female) nationwide were selected to
attend the one-week SPIRIT summer camp to learn about IT applications, including Alice, and wide-ranging career
opportunities in computing. Ten months after the camp, these students were asked to complete a follow-up survey,
and 53 returned completed surveys (71% response rate). Of those who responded, 19 (36%) were from male
students and 34 (64%) were from female students.
The survey included several multiple-choice questions as well as several open-ended questions. The openended survey data was analyzed using the method of emergent categories.
When asked if attending SPIRIT changed their course enrollment in the school year that followed, 43%
responded affirmatively. Among the courses they identified were programming, 3D art modeling, engineering,
robotics, AP computer science, computer graphics, IT, and a class that used Alice. Some of the respondents
explicitly stated they would not have taken the class identified if they had not attended SPIRIT.
When asked if SPIRIT influenced their performance in any courses they took during the following school
year, 60% said yes. Among the open-ended responses, students attributed their improved course performance to
SPIRIT through better grades, an improved work ethic, the use of Alice in course projects leading to more
recognition by their peers and teachers, better understanding of course concepts, greater confidence, greater
enthusiasm in technology-based courses, and improved computing skills to support school work.
Before attending SPIRIT, 60% of the students stated that they had a career goal. Of these responses, 12%
switched their preferences to a computing career. Of the other 40% who did not have a career goal prior to SPIRIT,
32% identified a computing or related career goal. This percentage only counts those who showed a commitment to
computing. There were other responses indicating interest in computing, but not necessarily yet a commitment to
pursue that as a career goal.
A 4-point Likert scale (1=very unlikely…4=likely) was used to gauge the students’ likelihood of pursuing
an IT or related career prior to attending SPIRIT as well as after attending SPIRIT. The survey showed that 36
(68%) of the students reported an increase in the likelihood of pursuing an IT or related career, with an average
increase of 1.67 points. The survey also showed that 2 (4%) students reported a decrease in the likelihood of
pursuing such a career. Although there were no open ended questions directly tied to these questions, one student’s
other responses indicated that the student felt the work would be tedious and challenging. The other students’
responses to the other open-ended questions did not offer additional insights regarding why this student’s intent to
pursue an IT-related field changed.
The vast majority of responses to another open-ended question regarding the best thing they learned at
SPIRIT indicated an understanding that there are many opportunities in IT and IT supports a multitude of areas.
Several also stated that they realized that IT could be fun, and others stated that women could be successful in IT.
Conclusion
The SPIRIT program was designed to change misperceptions held by teachers/counselors and students
regarding computing. The feedback from teachers shared at the in-service meetings suggests that the positive student
outcomes within their subject areas should provide incentives to other teachers to consider incorporating Alice into
their own classes. With the availability of class-tested, Alice-based lessons in a variety of subject areas, teachers
have tools to get started immediately. Instructional programs, like SPIRIT, are helpful in teaching teachers tools like
Alice and instilling a level of confidence for them to experiment with integrating technology in their subject areas.
The findings from the follow-up student survey suggest that by exposing students to the wide breadth of
career opportunities for people with IT skills and leading them through a variety of fun, hands-on computing
activities, it is possible to raise overall student awareness of the importance of IT and influence many of them to
increase the likelihood of pursuing an IT or related career. Although this exposure may increase initial pursuit of
computing majors in college, because the majority of college students change their majors at least once, ongoing
interventions may be needed to keep these students in computing.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, #DRL-0737679. A highlight of
the project is available at http://bit.ly/z9Om2c.dgzdf.
References
Carnegie Mellon University (2010, December 6). K-12 computer science education declining. ScienceDaily.
Retrieved October 21, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101206111536.htm.
Carnegie Mellon University. (2012). Alice: An educational software that teaches students computer programming in
a 3D environment. Retrieved October 21, 2012, from http://www.alice.org/.
Forssen, A. & Moskal, B. (2011, November). 3 Year SPIRIT Evaluators’ Report.
Harriger, A.R. (February 2010). Bringing students to STEM through non-STEM subjects. NSF-ITEST Summit
Washington, DC.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2011). ISTE.NETS S advancing digital age learning. NETS-S
Standards. Retrieved October 21, 2012, from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students.aspx.
Wilson, C., Sudol, L.A., Stephenson, C., & Stehlik, M. (2010). Running on empty: The failure to teach K-12
computer science in the digital age. Retrieved October 21, 2012, from
http://www.acm.org/runningonempty/fullreport.pdf.
Appendix A: SPIRIT Lesson Plan Template
Date
SPIRIT Program for High School Teachers
NameOfSchool
City, State
Lead Instructor:
Name
Contact Information (email, phone number with office hours, web address, mailing address)
Subject
The subject/domain area for the suggested lesson & suggested time during the school year
to use the lesson
Level
The grade/subject level for the suggested lesson (e.g., Math 9 or AP Calculus)
Keywords
word1, word2, word3
Summary
A brief description of the lesson, the material taught, the approach used without Alice, and
how Alice could be incorporated into the traditional lesson or used to augment the lesson
School Standards
Identify the subject area and specific standard addressed by the activity
Identify the state and/or if it is a national standard
Duration
Identify the amount of time to present the lesson in hours, number or class periods, length of
class periods, etc. (e.g., 30 minutes, 2 weeks)
Alice Concepts
The following Alice Concepts were employed in the lesson’s corresponding Alice world
Objectives

Billboard

Camera action

Do together/in order

Events

If/Else

Lists

Loop

Methods

Move

Opacity

Play music/sound

Record music/sound

Resize

Say/think

User Input

Variables

While

3-D text

Other, Explain:
Upon completion of the following activity, participants will:


Prerequisites
x
x
Before starting this activity, participants should already know or be able to:


x
x
Procedures
List the steps here OR attach to the end of this document:
1.
Materials
List the materials needed to complete this activity:
1.
Evaluation
Explain how the students could be evaluated and attach grading rubric
Assignment
Identify any out-of-class tasks that the participants are expected to complete and when their
work will be reviewed
References
List references following APA/MLA/etc style consistently in document
Further study
Optional: Explain additional activities that students could do to build on this lesson (like
optional challenges given if a few subjects).