Alice in Virginia Beach, a Continuing Experiment
John Harrison · 2013
To meet the needs of a more diverse group of students, Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) developed an introductory computer programming curriculum using the Alice programming environment. Both the target student population and the curriculum have changed since introduction in the 2006 - 2007 school year. Many of the current students have weak mathematics backgrounds and need this course to meet Virginia State graduation requirements. Teachers continue to search for meaningful and interesting ways to introduce Java to these students while building on the computer science concepts developed in Alice. The specific experiences of Princess Anne High School are used to generalize to the nine other Virginia Beach high schools that also teach the Alice curriculum.