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The effect of CS unplugged on middle-school students' views of CS

Authors:

Mordechai Ben-Ari,

Michal ArmoniAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 41, Issue 3

Pages 99 - 103

https://doi.org/10.1145/1595496.1562912

Published: 06 July 2009 Publication History

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.

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Cited By

Landman MKohn TMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)"Something that Happens Each Day" - Students' Explanations of What Algorithms AreProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3649217.3653531(199-205)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649217.3653531
Ragonis NRosenberg-Kima RHazzan O(2024)A computational thinking course for all preservice K-12 teachers: implementing the four pedagogies for developing computational thinking (4P4CT) frameworkEducational technology research and development10.1007/s11423-024-10406-5Online publication date: 12-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-024-10406-5
LaLone NToups Dugas P(2024)Human Use of Vintage Beings: How to Harness the Shock of the OldHCI in Games10.1007/978-3-031-60695-3_15(220-246)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
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Index Terms

The effect of CS unplugged on middle-school students' views of CS
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 41, Issue 3

ITiCSE '09

September 2009

403 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1595496

Issue’s Table of Contents

ITiCSE '09: Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
July 2009
428 pages
ISBN:9781605583815
DOI:10.1145/1562877
General Chair:
Patrick Brézillon
UPMC, France
,
Program Chairs:
Ingrid Russell
University of Hartford, USA
,
Jean-Marc Labat
UPMC, France

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

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: 06 July 2009

Published in SIGCSE Volume 41, Issue 3

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649217.3653531
Ragonis NRosenberg-Kima RHazzan O(2024)A computational thinking course for all preservice K-12 teachers: implementing the four pedagogies for developing computational thinking (4P4CT) frameworkEducational technology research and development10.1007/s11423-024-10406-5Online publication date: 12-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-024-10406-5
LaLone NToups Dugas P(2024)Human Use of Vintage Beings: How to Harness the Shock of the OldHCI in Games10.1007/978-3-031-60695-3_15(220-246)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-60695-3_15
ÜSTÜN GÜL HGÜYER T(2023)Türkiye’de Bilgisayarsız Bilgisayar Bilimi Alanında Yapılan Çalışmaların İncelenmesiExamination of studies in the field of computer science unplugged in TurkeyBayterek Uluslararası Akademik Araştırmalar Dergisi10.48174/buaad.12972556:2(363-384)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.48174/buaad.1297255
Dagiene VDolgopolovas V(2022)Short Tasks for Scaffolding Computational Thinking by the Global Bebras ChallengeMathematics10.3390/math1017319410:17(3194)Online publication date: 4-Sep-2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/math10173194
Battal AAfacan Adanır GGülbahar Y(2021)Computer Science Unplugged: A Systematic Literature ReviewJournal of Educational Technology Systems10.1177/0047239521101880150:1(24-47)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2021
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Repenning ALamprou ABasawapatna ASherriff MMerkle LCutter PMonge ASheard J(2021)Computing Effect Sizes of a Science-first-then-didactics Computational Thinking Module for Preservice Elementary School TeachersProceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3408877.3432446(274-280)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2021
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Lombart CSmal AHenry J(2020)Tips and Tricks for Changing the Way Young People Conceive Computer ScienceInformatics in Schools. Engaging Learners in Computational Thinking10.1007/978-3-030-63212-0_7(79-93)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2020
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Shin JHeo J(2020)STEAM-X: An Exploratory Study Adding Interactive Physical Activity to the STEAM ModelLearning and Collaboration Technologies. Designing, Developing and Deploying Learning Experiences10.1007/978-3-030-50513-4_14(179-193)Online publication date: 19-Jul-2020
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