Algorithmics: The Spirit of Computing
Algorithmics: The Spirit of Computing
Still a stranger here: attitudes among secondary school students towards computer science
Proceedings of the 8th annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Evaluating the effectiveness of a new instructional approach
Proceedings of the 35th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
Working group reports from ITiCSE on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Exploring students' understanding of the concept of algorithm: levels of abstraction
ITiCSE '05 Proceedings of the 10th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
Communications of the ACM - Self managed systems
Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
The current crisis in computing: what are the real issues?
Proceedings of the 38th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
Bridging the conceptual gap: assessing the impact on student attitudes toward programming
Proceedings of the 38th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
Serious fun in computer science
Proceedings of the 12th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Perceptions of Computer Science at a South African university
Computers & Education
Proceedings of the third international workshop on Computing education research
Engaging with computer science through magic shows
Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Computer science outreach in an elementary school
Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges
New Methodology of Information Education with "Computer Science Unplugged"
ISSEP '08 Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Informatics in Secondary Schools - Evolution and Perspectives: Informatics Education - Supporting Computational Thinking
The effect of CS unplugged on middle-school students' views of CS
ITiCSE '09 Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Computer science issues in high school: gender and more....
ITiCSE '09 Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Computing science: what do pupils think?
ITiCSE '09 Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Teaching CS unplugged in the high school (with limited success)
Proceedings of the 16th annual joint conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Meeting the challenges of rising enrollments
ACM Inroads
Computer science at school/CS teacher education: Koli working-group report on CS at school
Proceedings of the 12th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research
A CS unplugged activity for the online classroom
Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges
On the importance of being earnest: challenges in computer science education
Proceedings of the 7th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education
Proceedings of the 7th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education
MyCS: CS for middle-years students and their teachers
Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
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Many students hold incorrect ideas and negative attitudes about computer science (CS). In order to address these difficulties, a series of learning activities called Computer Science Unplugged was developed by Tim Bell and his colleagues. These activities expose young people to central concepts in CS in an entertaining way without requiring a computer. The CS Unplugged activities have become more and more popular among CS educators and several activities are recommended in the ACM K-12 curriculum for elementary schools. CS Unplugged is used worldwide and has been translated into many languages. We examined the effect of the CS Unplugged activities on middle-school students’ ideas about CS and their desire to consider and study it in high school. The results indicate that following the activities the ideas of the students on what CS is about were partially improved, but their desire to study CS lessened. In order to provide possible explanations to these results, we analyzed the CS Unplugged activities to determine to what extent the objectives of CS Unplugged were addressed in the activities. In addition, we checked whether the activities were designed according to constructivist principles and whether they were explicitly linked to central concepts in CS. We found that only some of the objectives were addressed in the activities, that the activities do not engage with the students’ prior knowledge and that most of the activities are not explicitly linked to central concepts in CS. We offer suggestions for modifying the CS Unplugged activities so that they will be more likely to achieve their objectives.