Using Robotics to Excite Students about Computer Science

摘要

The paper describes the development and use of a Web site designed to excite students about computer science in an attempt to reverse the nationwide trend in declining enrollments of computer science majors. The Taulbee Survey, conducted yearly since 1974 by Computing Research Association, has reported a nationwide 51 percent decline in enrollments of computer majors from 2000 - 2007.rnRobotics and the popular sumobot contests provide the main attraction for the Web site. In a sumobot contest, two robots try to locate and push each other out of a ring, following rules similar to sumo wrestling. The site provides tutorials for six Java programming projects that supplement the concepts taught in the Introductory computer science courses, including sequential statements, decision statements, repetition statements, problem solving and object-oriented programming. The target audience for the Web site will be students taking high school AP courses in computer science, as well as students enrolled at technical schools and universities.rnThe author describes the use and impact of the tutorials in the "Introduction to Java Programming" course during the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009. Future plans are also discussed.rnCopyright 2009 by the Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium. Permission to make printed or digital copies of all or part of this material for educational or personal use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies include this notice and the full citation on the first page.