Computer Science Unplugged, Bebras

Computer Science Unplugged

Computer Science Unplugged is a document/site that col­lec­ts a set of “unplug­ged” expe­rien­ces, that is, acti­vi­ties without com­pu­ters. The acti­vi­ties are aimed mostly at ele­men­ta­ry and midd­le school stu­den­ts, but it is still inte­re­sting to take a look at the site for three reasons:

• They pro­vi­de a sour­ce of inspi­ra­tion for deve­lo­ping the abi­li­ty to trans­la­te con­cep­ts under­ly­ing com­pu­ter scien­ce (not just pro­gram­ming) into one’s teaching;
• Math majors can teach Math and Science, and the­se acti­vi­ties are an alter­na­ti­ve way to inte­gra­te com­pu­ter scien­ce con­cep­ts into cour­se activities;
• They are increa­sin­gly being used to teach tea­chers the con­cep­ts behind com­pu­ter science.

Papers and Links

• Tim Bell, Jan Vahrenhold. CS Unplugged—How Is It Used, and Does It Work? In “Adventures Between Lower Bounds and Higher Altitudes”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11011. Springer (2018)
• CS Unplugged: [Website-2018] [Libro ita­lia­no-2015]

Bebras 

Bebras is a non­pro­fit com­pu­ter scien­ce outreach ini­tia­ti­ve. In Italy, it is orga­ni­zed by the Aladdin research group of the  Department of Computer Science “Giovanni degli Antoni” (University of Milan).

Bebras (“bea­ver” in the lan­gua­ge of the coun­try, Lithuania, whe­re the ini­tia­ti­ve was born in 2004) is an inter­na­tio­nal orga­ni­za­tion that aims to pro­mo­te the scien­ti­fic aspec­ts of com­pu­ter scien­ce in schools. Bebras games are acces­si­ble to pri­ma­ry and secon­da­ry school stu­den­ts even without any spe­ci­fic prior kno­w­led­ge. The pro­po­sed pro­blems, howe­ver, pre­sent real com­pu­ter scien­ce situa­tions, requi­ring them to inter­pret infor­ma­tion, mani­pu­la­te discre­te struc­tu­res, pro­cess data and rea­son algorithmically.

Bebras has dif­fe­rent ver­sions accor­ding to age groups, from KiloBebras (8–10 years old) to PetaBebras (high school three-year olds).

Papers and links:

• Annalisa Calcagni, Violetta Lonati, Dario Malchiodi, Mattia Monga, Anna Morpurgo. Promoting Computational Thinking Skills: Would You Use this Bebras Task? ISSEP 2017: 102–113 (2017)
• Bebras [Sito web]

Optional, if you feel:

• Insight into some Bebras que­stions — Violetta Lonati. [Video]
  The video pre­sen­ts some Bebras que­stions, discus­sing in par­ti­cu­lar their com­pu­ter scien­ce con­tent and tea­ching value. The key used is that of com­pu­ta­tio­nal thin­king, which can ena­ble tea­chers, even in the absen­ce of spe­ci­fic trai­ning in com­pu­ter scien­ce, to gra­sp the fun­da­men­tal aspec­ts of the que­stions in order to re-pro­po­se them in their clas­srooms after the competition. 

• Situated Learning with Bebras Quizzes — Martina Palazzolo.[Video] 
  In the video, a tea­cher from IC Ilaria Alpi in Milan pre­sen­ts a labo­ra­to­ry based lear­ning path cen­te­red on the Bebras que­stions. The path, which invol­ved a secon­da­ry school class and a pri­ma­ry school class, was aimed at pro­mo­ting both com­pu­ta­tio­nal thin­king and the chil­dre­n’s desi­gn and team­work skills).

Reasoning/discussion promp­ts:

• Analyze the acti­vi­ties pro­po­sed by CS Unplugged or the quiz­zes pro­po­sed by Bebras, choo­sing a cou­ple that seem par­ti­cu­lar­ly inte­re­sting and mea­ning­ful to you to bring to class.

• Describe, in your opi­nion, how the­se acti­vi­ties / quiz­zes can sti­mu­la­te com­pu­ta­tio­nal / logi­cal / algo­ri­th­mic thinking.