According to statistics reported by the National Science Foundation in 2010, only one in every four computing jobs is held by a woman. A team of computer scientists and educators at the University of Colorado wants to change that.Their project, known as Scalable Game Design, changes the way computer programming is taught. It uses a program that teaches kids not just how to play computer games, but how to make them.
The tool is called Agent Cubes. It uses simple drag and drop actions to make 3D games. It’s easy enough that an elementary school student can use it. The project leader, CU computer science professor Alexander Repenning, says it shifts roles so that the teacher and the students explore and solve the problems of creating a game together. He says this is critical because teachers and students have struggled with the way programming has been traditionally taught, with the teacher simply telling the students what to do and how to do it.
“You are just one semi-colon away from disaster,” he says.
He says the assignments were also boring and too abstract for students to see any relevance to their lives. For example they might have been asked to compute prime numbers. Girls were particularly put off by this method of teaching. They want to be more involved in figuring out what to do and why they are making certain choices
The CU team’s work to get girls interested in computer science is part of a large scale, long-term project to increase engagement among all underserved populations such as low income students, minorities and rural communities. The project has brought Scalable Game Design to schools across Colorado, as well as internationally and is collecting student-created games in an online arcade.
Listen to Computer coding isn’t just a guy thing reported and produced by Shanna Lewis for Colorado Matters.
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