Article

Teaching objects-first in introductory computer science

Authors:

Stephen Cooper,

Wanda Dann,

Randy PauschAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '03: Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

Pages 191 - 195

https://doi.org/10.1145/611892.611966

Published: 11 January 2003 Publication History

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Abstract

An objects-first strategy for teaching introductory computer science courses is receiving increased attention from CS educators. In this paper, we discuss the challenge of the objects-first strategy and present a new approach that attempts to meet this challenge. The new approach is centered on the visualization of objects and their behaviors using a 3D animation environment. Statistical data as well as informal observations are summarized to show evidence of student performance as a result of this approach. A comparison is made of the pedagogical aspects of this new approach with that of other relevant work.

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Index Terms

Teaching objects-first in introductory computer science
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

SIGCSE '03: Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

February 2003

444 pages

ISBN:158113648X

DOI:10.1145/611892

Conference Chair:
Scott Grissom
Grand Valley State University
,
Program Chairs:
Deborah Knox
The College of New Jersey
,
Dan Joyce
Villanova University
,
Publications Chair:
Wanda Dann
Ithaca College

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 35, Issue 1
January 2003
406 pages
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/792548
Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 11 January 2003

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February 19 - 23, 2003

Navada, Reno, USA

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