Curriculum Development Efforts

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Adding Visual Aids to CMSE 201

Folks Involved: E. Bolger (lead), D. Silvia

For her Mentored Teaching Project as a part of the Certificate of College Teaching, Emily integrated visual aids in the CMSE 201 course materials to help students strengthen their understanding of coding practices like lists, data frames, and two-dimensional arrays, particularly in relation to indexing with those tools. The purpose of the visual aids was to help students conceptualize the structure of the object as well as walk through examples that showed information retrieval from these objects. We also embedded guided questions for students to practice explaining their coding choices and implementations. Specifically, we were looking to study how students think about and explain code using descriptive language to their instructors, fellow coding classmates, and non-coders. To assess the modifications implemented in the CMSE 201 curriculum, we used three methods: bi-semesterly survey, in-class student observations, and class assignment observations. While we struggled to encourage students to respond to the written critical thinking questions, we noticed that the students asked more targeted, thoughtful questions and referred to the visual aids frequently throughout the course.

Data Literacy and Ethics in CMSE 201

Folks Involved: Emily Bolger and Rachel Roca

Following a class assignment, Rachel and Emily developed a research backed CMSE 201 assignment to help students learn about bias that’s inherent in data and the implications it can have on hiring practices. Students interact with the simulation “Survival of the Best Fit” developed by Gabor Csapo, Jihyun Kim, Miha Klasinc, and Alia ElKattan and take a deeper dive into the data creation. This assignment explores the nuances of impact vs. intent of using AI, interrogates how bias shows up in data and algorithms, and celebrates students’ abilities to read and interact with outside code while supporting their self-efficacy. Their materials can be found here.