Invited Speaker - Glenn Blank

Title: Widening the Pipeline of At Risk Students into Computing with Mars Rovers, Flash, Design-First Java, and Tutoring (Human and Artificial)

Abstract: As Tracy Camp (among others) has observed, "the computing community cannot sit back and assume that as the numbers of students rises, the percentage of women students will automatically rise and that the '[incredible shrinking pipeline] will take care of itself.' We must take direct action to attract and retain more women to computing at all points in the pipeline (i.e., K-12, undergraduate, graduate, faculty and industry)." That's what the LV STEM and Launch-IT projects, funded by the NSF's GK-12 and ITEST programs respectively, as well as the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance (PITA), seek to do.

LV STEM (www.lehigh.edu/stem) sends graduate teaching fellows into Allentown and Bethlehem schools to help teachers develop novel curricula inspired by cutting edge research. One team has developed a curriculum based on scale models of the Mars Rovers performing scientific missions in a Martian landscape created in the basement of an Allentown middle school. Another team introduced Flash in a Bethlehem middle school, which in turn created buzz and a demand for Flash in a Bethlehem high school, where now all students learn about animation and Action Script (instead of just Office applications). A third team created the "Design-first with Java" curriculum, which introduces objects and classes using multimedia then teaches them how to design solutions to problem as UML class diagrams, with the assistance of an intelligent tutoring system.

Building on these curricula, and the success of Lehigh's Students That Are Ready (S.T.A.R.) program, the Launch-IT project (www.lehigh.edu/launchit) launches at risk middle and high school students in the Lehigh Valley towards college and careers in Information Technology (IT). Summer and Saturday curricula include programming remotely control mobile robots in a simulated Martian landscape ( for 6th and 7th graders), creating a web-based music juke box using Flash (for 8th and 9th graders), and learning object-oriented design and Java for AP college preparation (for 10th through 12th graders).

These programs emphasize use of innovative technology, including a Java program that lets student both simulate and control the Mars robots, interactive multimedia that introduces computer science and Java programming, and intelligent tutoring systems that prepare students for the math section of the SATs and introduce object-oriented design. In addition to these novel curricula, Launch-IT provides students with one-on-one tutoring and role modeling from college students, IT-oriented field trips on and off campus, and guest speakers from regional IT companies.

Biography

Glenn D. Blank, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Lehigh University, received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984. He develops curricula and tools designed to increase accessibility into computer science. The CIMEL (Constructive Inquiry-Based Multimedia E-Learning) project created interactive multimedia courseware, including a CS1 course covering the breadth of computer science and an “objects first approach to Java. The DesignFirst-ITS project is developing an tutoring system in support of a “design first approach to learning software development. The Launch-IT and LV STEM projects seek to widen the pipeline of at-risk middle and high school students pursuing college and careers in information technology, with summer and weekend programs including programming remotely controlled mobile robots in a simulated Martian landscape, creating a web-based music juke box using Macromedia Flash, and enhancing a design-first a pproach to learning Java, for AP credit.