This website makes the "T" (Technology) in STEM come to life for students, and hopefully it will spark their desire to work in computer science. Alice was produced at Carnegie-Mellon University, and it is a free educational software program that teaches computer programming in a 3-D environment. The website states that it tries to make a student's first attempt at programming less frustrating, and the end result is an animation to tell a story, play an interactive game or make a video. Visitors should check out the "Teaching" tab, which includes "Instructional Materials", "Tutorials" and "Textbooks". There are almost a dozen textbooks on using Alice, several of which were co-authored by a well-known computer scientist visitors may remember - the late Randy Pausch. Visitors can sign up for a periodic Alice newsletter, under the "Teaching" or "Community" tab. The "Publications" tab has five papers that visitors can download as PDFs, including "Alice: Easy-to-Learn 3D Scripting for Novices" and "Evaluating the Effectiveness of a New Instructional Approach."
Comments