CS Unplugged Techniques for Teaching Computer Science Concepts.

1. CS UnpluggedTechniques for Teaching Computer Science Concepts.

2. CS Unplugged • Most first courses in computer science are very ambitious. • Try to teach how to program in a particular language as well as broader concepts. • Very easy to get caught up in teaching the programming . • Certainly a necessary thing for later topics in CS. • How do you study operating systems without being able to program parts of them. (Or all of them.) CS Unplugged

3. CS Unplugged • CS Unplugged • Designed by New Zealander educators for teaching primary age children • Good for older students as well • www.unplugged.canterbury.ac.nz/ • Free from Google • www.google.com/educators/activities.html • www.google.com/educators/index.html CS Unplugged

4. Dots • Dots. • dots on the next card • make numbers • count • how many numbers • how many numbers if we add a card • what happens when count to limit • secret messages • add a 0 to the end CS Unplugged

5. Pictures • using dots for other things • why the 0 • what kind of pictures require the largest amount of numbers to represent them • what kind of pictures require the largest amount of numbers to represent them • test it with a real fax machine CS Unplugged

6. 0 CS Unplugged

7. 0 CS Unplugged

8. 0 CS Unplugged

9. Text Compression • intro, boxes and arrows • decompress this • a harder problem • numbers instead of boxes and arrows • compress this CS Unplugged

10. I am Sam. Sam I am. That Sam-I-am! That Sam-I-am! I do not like that Sam-I-am! Do you like green eggs and ham? CS Unplugged

11. But our fish said, “No! No! Make that cat go away! Tell that Cat in the Hat you do not want to play. He should not be here. He should not be about. He should not be here when your mother is out!” CS Unplugged

12. Error Detection and Correction • if letters encoded using bits, what happens if a bit is wrong • 5 x 5 cards • more cards to make it harder • flip • flip 2 • real life example, ISBN CS Unplugged

13. Searching • Cards in random order • each look requires payment of a treat out of a jar • if any left, keep them • Cards in sorted order • same rules • battleship • each ship has a letter and a number • I pick a number • you want the location of that number • you guess the letter of the ship I picked • linear search battleship • binary search battleship • hashing battleship CS Unplugged

14. Sorting Networks • grid on the ground • start on left hand side • when at a circle wait for another member to arrive • compare cards • low goes left, high goes right • tie? same way you came in CS Unplugged

15. Minimum Spanning Trees • the Muddy City • connect houses with paving stones • goal use the fewest stones • can get from one house to any other house, although not always directly CS Unplugged

16. Dragon Stories • David Touretzky, Professor at CMU • www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/ • Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation • www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/index.html • Martin and the Dragon • backed up with traces and recursion templates CS Unplugged

17. Problem Solving • The Puzzling Adventures of Dr. Ecco • Dr. Ecco: Mathematical Detective (Codes, Puzzles, and Conspiracy) • Dr. Ecco's Cyberpuzzles: 36 Puzzles for Hackers and Other Mathematical Detective • Crossing the River with Dogs CS Unplugged

18. And One Plugged In Activity • Google Image Labeler • ESP Game, Louis von Alm CS Unplugged