AMANDA GILBERT

Studying the Effectiveness of Storytelling Alice in Teaching

Programming Concepts to Elementary School Students

Abstract

Cardinal Forest Elementary School4th Grade (Mostly Girls: 3 Boys)English and Mathematical Standards of

LearningPython as an End Goal

Introduction

Drag-and-drop programming environment, transition to individual coding

Programming environment centered on graphics, transition to non-visual environment

Python transition will begin in the 4th quarterStorytelling Alice is compatible with the

fourth grade Standards of Learning

Background: English Standards of Learning (that can be enhanced by S.A.)

“Seek ideas and opinions of others”“Use evidence to support opinions”“Explain the author’s purpose”“Describe how the choice of language,

setting, and information contributes to the author’s purpose”

“Identify major events and supporting details”

“Develop a plan for writing”“Organize writing to convey a central idea”

Background

Storytelling Alice developed by Caitlin Kelleher at Carnegie Mellon University

Kelleher targeted middle-school-aged girls Boys and girls ideas of “ideal technology” is

significantly differentDiversity is important in technology

Development: Project One

Taught the children how to create a world (create a scene in Storytelling Alice)

This project took a couple classesAll children got some important concepts

from this lesson: how to create a setting and how to add objects and scale/move them accordingly

Project One

Development: Project Two

This was the first introduction to creating a method

Do In Order/Do TogetherValues taught in class: Number, String,

Boolean, Object

Development: Project Two

Development: Quiz One

Tested children’s abilities to form their own control statements and methods

They were given the methods/control statements and the order they were to go in and they had to write them in the brackets

This tests their ability to create programs on their own

Development: Project Three

This project combined all skills so farThe kids created a worldStarted with a story, picked out the setting

and charactersCreated code using control statements and

values

Development: Project Three

Results and Conclusions

I have changed my direction from the start of the year

I am now headed toward Python and am trying to separate the students into those that are capable and those that aren’t through a series of projects and quizzes

I have become a better teacher through this process: more patient

Results and Conclusions

Quiz results:Very Proficient: 80% -100% correctProficient: 50%-80% correctNot Very Proficient: 20%-50% correctNot At All Proficient: 0%-20% correctThere were 5 perfect tests out of 16 (31.25%)

Results and Conclusions

Quiz One

Very ProficientProficientNot Very ProficientNot At All Proficient