article

Teaching empirical skills and concepts in computer science using random walks

Author:

Grant BraughtAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 37, Issue 1

Pages 41 - 45

https://doi.org/10.1145/1047124.1047373

Published: 23 February 2005 Publication History

Abstract

An argument is made for integrating the study of empirical skills and concepts into the computer science curriculum. With reference to past work an incremental approach is advocated for the study of these skills and concepts. A unique assignment that exemplifies the advocated approach is presented. This assignment, based on the study of random walks, is intended to introduce empirical investigation as early as is possible, during the first week of the first course. Two extensions to this assignment, one for the first course and one for a programming languages course, are discussed and used to illustrate the advocated incremental approach.

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Cited By

Siegmund JApel S(2014)The Human Factor in Computer Science and How to Teach Students to Care: An Experience ReportSocioinformatics - The Social Impact of Interactions between Humans and IT10.1007/978-3-319-09378-9_2(13-24)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09378-9_2
Braught GWahls T(2008)Teaching objects in contextJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/1352627.135264423:5(101-109)Online publication date: 1-May-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1352627.1352644
Siegmund JApel S(2014)The Human Factor in Computer Science and How to Teach Students to Care: An Experience ReportSocioinformatics - The Social Impact of Interactions between Humans and IT10.1007/978-3-319-09378-9_2(13-24)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09378-9_2
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Teaching empirical skills and concepts in computer science using random walks
1. Mathematics of computing
  1. Probability and statistics
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
      2. Model curricula

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 37, Issue 1

2005

562 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1047124

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '05: Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
February 2005
610 pages
ISBN:1581139977
DOI:10.1145/1047344
Conference Chairs:
Wanda Dann
Ithaca College
,
Tom Naps
University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh
,
Program Chairs:
Paul Tymann
Rochester Institute of Technology
,
Doug Baldwin
SUNY Geneseo

Copyright © 2005 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 23 February 2005

Published in SIGCSE Volume 37, Issue 1

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Cited By

Siegmund JApel S(2014)The Human Factor in Computer Science and How to Teach Students to Care: An Experience ReportSocioinformatics - The Social Impact of Interactions between Humans and IT10.1007/978-3-319-09378-9_2(13-24)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09378-9_2
Braught GWahls T(2008)Teaching objects in contextJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/1352627.135264423:5(101-109)Online publication date: 1-May-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1352627.1352644
Siegmund JApel S(2014)The Human Factor in Computer Science and How to Teach Students to Care: An Experience ReportSocioinformatics - The Social Impact of Interactions between Humans and IT10.1007/978-3-319-09378-9_2(13-24)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09378-9_2
Kortsarts YKempner YLapidot TGal-Ezer JCaspersen MHazzan O(2012)Enriching introductory programming courses with non-intuitive probability experiments componentProceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education10.1145/2325296.2325330(128-131)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2325296.2325330
Carver JJaccheri LMorasca SShull F(2010)A checklist for integrating student empirical studies with research and teaching goalsEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-009-9109-915:1(35-59)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-009-9109-9
Anderson S(2007)A course on simulation, probability and statisticsACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/1227504.122735039:1(110-114)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1227504.1227350
Anderson SRussell IHaller SDougherty JRodger S(2007)A course on simulation, probability and statisticsProceedings of the 38th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/1227310.1227350(110-114)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1227310.1227350

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