2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

“Mmm… Donuts!” Using Real-World Scenarios in a First-Year Programming Course

Presented at First-Year Programs Division (FYP) - Technical Session 11: Projects

This complete, evidence-based practice paper will describe experiential work involving the application of the entrepreneurial mindset in the first computer programming course (CS1). Teaching CS1 has always been challenging, with first-year students trying to learn problem-solving paradigms expressed in a “foreign” (i.e., programming) language. When materials are presented abstractly – such as emphasizing computing for its own sake - the result is often a disconnect: our students cannot envision how the concepts being taught can be meaningfully applied. Consequently, it is important for CS1 instructors to provide appropriate context allowing their first-year students to make connections between their coursework and providing value to others through their coding activities.

One approach presented here involves using the theories behind developing compelling word problems (AKA story problems) to develop programming assignments featuring real-world scenarios expressed in narrative form that are relatable, solvable, and open-ended. Additionally, preliminary laboratory exercises, where students work on solving some of various sub tasks associated with the assignment, are used to help guide development efforts. To illustrate this approach, this paper will examine a typical CS1 assignment - calculating the price of a business transaction and subsequently accepting payment and providing change to the customer - by wrapping it within a scenario involving customers making purchases at a local donut shop. Students are provided with such real-world artifacts as the donut shop’s menu, government publications for calculating sales tax, and donut shop photos. Students are primed for success through laboratory assignments separately focusing on the professional responsibilities for calculating sales tax, making change, and formatting monetary output while emphasizing the importance of breaking problems down into their components. This particular CS1 assignment has been successfully used in developing entrepreneurial mindset along the "connections" and "creating value" dimensions, as demonstrated by both quantitative and qualitative post-activity survey data. Interested readers are encouraged to download all materials associated with this assignment via the provided resource materials hosted by the Engineering Unleashed web site.

Authors

Dr. John K. Estell http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6419-6821 Ohio Northern University [biography]

An active member of ASEE for over 25 years, Dr. John K. Estell was elected in 2016 as a Fellow of ASEE in recognition of the breadth, richness, and quality of his contributions to the betterment of engineering education. Estell currently serves on the ASEE Board of Directors as the Vice President of Professional Interest Councils and as the Chair of Professional Interest Council III. He has held multiple ASEE leadership positions within the First-Year Programs (FPD) and Computers in Education (CoED) divisions, and with the Ad Hoc Committee on Interdivisional Cooperation, Interdivisional Town Hall Planning Committee, ASEE Active, and the Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Estell has received multiple ASEE Annual Conference Best Paper awards from the Computers in Education, First-Year Programs, and Design in Engineering Education Divisions. He has also been recognized by ASEE as the recipient of the 2005 Merl K. Miller Award and by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) with the 2018 ASEE Best Card Award. Estell received the First-Year Programs Division’s Distinguished Service Award in 2019.

Estell currently serves as an ABET Commissioner and as a member on ABET’s Accreditation Council Training Committee. He was previously a Member-At-Large on the Computing Accreditation Commission Executive Committee and a Program Evaluator for both computer engineering and computer science. Estell is well-known for his significant contributions on streamlining student outcomes assessment processes and has been an invited presenter at the ABET Symposium on multiple occasions. He was named an ABET Fellow in 2021. Estell is also a founding member and current Vice President of The Pledge of the Computing Professional, an organization dedicated to the promotion of ethics in the computing professions.

Estell is Professor of Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Ohio Northern University, where he currently teaches first-year programming and user interface design courses, and serves on the college’s Capstone Design Committee. Much of his research involves design education pedagogy, including formative assessment of client-student interactions, modeling sources of engineering design constraints, and applying the entrepreneurial mindset to first-year programming projects through student engagement in educational software development. Estell earned his BS in Computer Science and Engineering degree from The University of Toledo and both his MS and PhD degrees in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Stephany Coffman-Wolph Ohio Northern University [biography]

Dr. Stephany Coffman-Wolph is an Assistant Professor at Ohio Northern University in the Department of Electrical, Computer Engineering, and Computer Science (ECCS). Research interests include: Artificial Intelligence, Fuzzy Logic, Game Theory, Teaching Computer Science to First-Year, K-12 Outreach, and Increasing Diversity in STEM.
Ian Meyer Kropp

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