Playing to Learn
Karen Anewalt, Jennifer A. Polack · 2018
Active learning techniques are widely reported to enhance student learning and increase student engagement. They provide a powerful tool to reinforce course concepts and allow students with diverse backgrounds and learning styles to master essential concepts efficiently. In addition, many students and faculty find hands-on activities to be fun and memorable. Workshop attendees will participate in five hands-on activities covering concepts that are commonly taught in introductory programming courses including variable declaration, object instantiation, parameter passing, memory management, and the software development process. Workshop participants will be challenged to create additional activities to be included in an online repository. Instructors of introductory programming courses at the undergraduate and K-12 level who are interested in creating memorable learning experiences using free and low-cost props will find this participatory workshop to be relevant to their teaching. Come ready to play!