Launching Swiss Computer Science Education Week

Moving Beyond Syntax: Lessons from 20 Years of Blocks Programing in AgentSheets

“…As the main tools of the Scalable Game Design curriculum [51,86], AgentSheets and AgentCubes include the mechanisms described below. They are being used by students around the world [87,88] and have been tested with respect to cognitive [47] and affective challenges [3].…”

Piloting Computer Science Education Week in Mexico

“…Due to their generally more limited computer access at home, however, Mexican students were far less likely to continue with their game projects than Swiss and U.S. students. The really high retention beyond the first hour in Switzerland may be due to the timing of the activity [4]. During CS Ed Week, many Swiss schools have so-called project weeks where teachers are free to dedicate multiple school sessions to special projects.…”

“…During CS Ed Week, many Swiss schools have so-called project weeks where teachers are free to dedicate multiple school sessions to special projects. Furthermore, the fact that games of Swiss students were significantly longer than those of U.S. and Mexican students could be due to additional support provided to the Swiss activity including a 10 hour a day phone-in help line and email support consisting of a staff of 3 full-time workers during CS Ed Week [4]. This might be something that could be extended to the Mexican and U.S. activities to better deal with technical issues that may come up during the activity.…”

“…So far, the SGD project has helped over 20,000 students in the U.S. create their first games and simulations [16]. Furthermore, SGD successfully launched the Swiss Computer Science Education Week (CS Ed Week) activity in 2014 [4,17], extending its scope to Europe.…”

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“…As the main tools of the Scalable Game Design curriculum [51,86], AgentSheets and AgentCubes include the mechanisms described below. They are being used by students around the world [87,88] and have been tested with respect to cognitive [47] and affective challenges [3].…”