Using cargo-bot to provide contextualized learning of recursion

  • Authors:

  • Joe Tessler;Bradley Beth;Calvin Lin

  • Affiliations:

  • The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA;The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA;The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the ninth annual international ACM conference on International computing education research
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

This paper presents a new method of teaching recursion in which students first play a video game to contextualize recursive operations. Results from a controlled experiment with 47 high school students taking AP Computer Science A indicate that this instructional strategy produces significant improvements in students' understanding of recursion. Additionally, survey results show that nearly every student enjoys the learning activity and is confident in his or her ability to accomplish the recursive exercises.