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Pre-games: games designed to introduce CS1 and CS2 programming assignments

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Ray GiguetteAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 35, Issue 1

Pages 288 - 292

https://doi.org/10.1145/792548.611990

Published: 11 January 2003 Publication History

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Abstract

Many CS1 and CS2 instructors have been using game-like assignments and manipulatives to increase student understanding of abstract concepts. A related approach described in this paper requires students to play a game-like version of each assignment (referred to as the "pre-game") before designing and coding their own programs. Students complete a prototype of the pre-game that uses simpler I/O but otherwise follows the same specification. By playing the pre-game, students become familiar with lesson principles using a concrete example that combines the advantages of both game-play and manipulatives. Ideally, the pre-game creates an environment that both encourages experimentation, and allows students to use their intuition when designing algorithms and data structures.

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Cited By

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Savidis AGrammenos DStephanidis C(2018)Developing inclusive e-learning and e-entertainment to effectively accommodate learning difficultiesUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-006-0059-35:4(401-419)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-006-0059-3
Savidis AGrammenos DStephanidis C(2018)Developing inclusive e-learning systemsUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-006-0024-15:1(51-72)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-006-0024-1
Panitz MSung KRosenberg R(2010)Game programming in CS0Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/1858449.185847226:1(126-132)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1858449.1858472
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Index Terms

Pre-games: games designed to introduce CS1 and CS2 programming assignments
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

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 35, Issue 1

January 2003

406 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/792548

Issue’s Table of Contents

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

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

Published in SIGCSE Volume 35, Issue 1

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Savidis AGrammenos DStephanidis C(2018)Developing inclusive e-learning and e-entertainment to effectively accommodate learning difficultiesUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-006-0059-35:4(401-419)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-006-0059-3
Savidis AGrammenos DStephanidis C(2018)Developing inclusive e-learning systemsUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-006-0024-15:1(51-72)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-006-0024-1
Panitz MSung KRosenberg R(2010)Game programming in CS0Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/1858449.185847226:1(126-132)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1858449.1858472
Grammenos DSavidis AStephanidis C(2009)Designing universally accessible gamesComputers in Entertainment (CIE)10.1145/1486508.14865167:1(1-29)Online publication date: 27-Feb-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1486508.1486516
Sung KPanitz MWallace SAnderson RNordlinger J(2008)Game-themed programming assignmentsACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/1352322.135224140:1(300-304)Online publication date: 12-Mar-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1352322.1352241
Sung KPanitz MWallace SAnderson RNordlinger JDougherty JRodger SFitzgerald SGuzdial M(2008)Game-themed programming assignmentsProceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/1352135.1352241(300-304)Online publication date: 12-Mar-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1352135.1352241
Savidis AStamou AStephanidis C(2007)An Accessible Multimodal Pong Game SpaceUniversal Access in Ambient Intelligence Environments10.1007/978-3-540-71025-7_26(405-418)Online publication date: 2007
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71025-7_26
Savidis AStamou AStephanidis C(2006)An accessible multimodal pong game spaceProceedings of the 9th conference on User interfaces for all10.5555/1783789.1783819(405-418)Online publication date: 27-Sep-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1783789.1783819
Lakanen AIsomöttönen VCarter JUtting IClear A(2013)High school students' perspective to university CS1Proceedings of the 18th ACM conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education10.1145/2462476.2465585(261-266)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2013
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Chang JDang LPavleas JMcCarthy JSung KBay J(2012)Experience with Dream CodersJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/2379703.237974628:1(227-236)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2012
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Pre-games: games designed to introduce CS1 and CS2 programming assignments

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