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Lab-Based Teaching

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Guide to Teaching Computer Science

Abstract

This chapter focuses on computer science teaching methods that fit especially to be employed in the computer lab, where all learners work on computers (either on the school’s computer in a specific room or on their own laptops). The uniqueness of the computer lab as a learning environment for computer science is explained by the fact that it enables learners to explore their problem-solving strategies, to express their solutions to a given problem, to get feedback regarding to the correctness of their solution and to reflect on it, to develop large projects, to explore new topics, and to deepen their understanding of the nature of the algorithms they develop. The main purpose of the lessons in the MTCS course dedicated to this topic is to expose the students to usages of the computer lab as a learning environment and to let them realize how it may improve their future pupils’ understanding of computer science ideas. One of the main messages of this chapter is that the learning of computer science in the computer lab is not limited to programming tasks; rather, the computer lab can be used in additional pedagogical ways that further enhance learners’ understanding of computer science. Specifically, the following topics are addressed in this chapter: what is a computer lab?, the lab-first teaching approach, visualization and animation, and using online resources in computer science teaching.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company, Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

  2. 2.

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software visualization.

  3. 3.

    http://www.jflap.org/

  4. 4.

    See http://algoviz.org/

  5. 5.

    Source: http://cs.joensuu.fi/jeliot/

  6. 6.

    Source: http://www.bluej.org/download/download.html

  7. 7.

    See TOCE special issue on Initial Learning Environments (November 2010, vol. 10(4)) for a broader discussion of IDEs.

  8. 8.

    See http://www.alice.org/

  9. 9.

    See http://www.greenfoot.org/

  10. 10.

    See http://csis.pace.edu/~bergin/KarelJava2ed/Karel++JavaEdition.html

  11. 11.

    See http://www.microworlds.com/

  12. 12.

    See http://scratch.mit.edu/

  13. 13.

    See http://www.squeak.org/

  14. 14.

    See https://education.mit.edu/project/starlogo-tng/

  15. 15.

    Source: http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/mediaComp-teach

  16. 16.

    See http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/mediaComp-teach

  17. 17.

    https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/

  18. 18.

    https://www.tutorialspoint.com/java/index.htm

  19. 19.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfhjkfocRR0

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education in Science & Technology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Orit Hazzan & Tami Lapidot

  2. Faculty of Education, Beit Berl College, Doar Beit Berl, Israel

    Noa Ragonis

Authors
  1. Orit Hazzan
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  2. Noa Ragonis
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  3. Tami Lapidot
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Hazzan, O., Ragonis, N., Lapidot, T. (2020). Lab-Based Teaching. In: Guide to Teaching Computer Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39360-1_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39360-1_11

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-39359-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-39360-1

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