The Department has received two grants from the National Science Foundation to participate in the collaborative development of new computer science curricular materials. Both projects will supervised at Alma College by Dr. Myles McNally, and provide summer research experiences for students over the next three years.
The first project began July 15, 2003 and is entitled Educational Innovation:
Lego Mindstorms - Cost Effectively Expanding CS Students' Horizons and
Enthusiasm Outside the (Desktop) Box.
The goal of this $480,000 project
is to develop curricular materials which will allow educators to
utilize
robotics in a variety of undergraduate computer science courses. This
is a collaborative project with Villanova University and the University
of Mississippi, and each institution will hold two faculty development
workshops. The most recent workshop was held at Alma College June 14-17,
2005 and brought together educators from as far away as California and
Georgia. Please visit the website for the project.
The title of the second project is Integrating Algorithm Visualization into Computer Science Education, and centers on developing an environment for the construction and delivery of algorithm animations. A collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Grand Valley State University, and funded at $197,000, this project began May 1, 2004. Please visit the website for the project.
