[Edu-sig] Encouraging students to plan effectively

Sat, 15 Dec 2001 23:30:12 -0600

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(I inadvertently sent this to the original poster only -- I meant to send it to the OP and the list so here it is.)

In quickly reading your materials, e.g.,,

> My students are part way through a new Portfolio Tracker assignment
> (http://www.isd197.org/sibley/cs/icp/assignments/portfolio_html), but I
> think I'll hand out some user story cards and get them used to the concept.
>
> I wrote up another project page at
> http://www.isd197.org/sibley/cs/icp/assignments/portfolio2_html that
> emphasizes the user stories.
>

etc. I had expected more real "stories" -- i.e. "So, a user walks into a brokerage house and asks..." with the eye on the stories
being one to engage the imagination and from the story to distill the requirements.

That's kind of what I have done for middle school students with respect to a Mars Voyage Simulation written in Perl (see:
http://home.mindspring.com/~djrassoc01/mars/index.html ) though it's not quite the same thing because I was writing the program to
fit some requirements of a Mars Space Camp that the students were taking.  Still, I tried (for middle school students) to weave a
"simulation story" around what I was doing so there would be a natural visualizable way that the programming aspects would fall out
and be meaningful to the students rather than seeming to have just been pulled out of thin air.

Your students are several years older than mine so it may be that they don't need (as I felt) the more concrete story telling to get
their heads into the problem -- in which case the comments are not that relevant.

--D.

--
Dr. David J. Ritchie, Sr.
djrassoc01@mindspring.com
http://home.mindspring.com/~djrassoc01/

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<html>
(I inadvertently sent this to the original poster only -- I meant to send
it to the OP and the list so here it is.)
In quickly reading your materials, e.g.,,
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>
<pre>My students are part way through a new Portfolio Tracker assignment
(<a href="http://www.isd197.org/sibley/cs/icp/assignments/portfolio_html">http://www.isd197.org/sibley/cs/icp/assignments/portfolio_html</a>), but I
think I'll hand out some user story cards and get them used to the concept.

I wrote up another project page at
<a href="http://www.isd197.org/sibley/cs/icp/assignments/portfolio2_html">http://www.isd197.org/sibley/cs/icp/assignments/portfolio2_html</a> that
emphasizes the user stories.</pre>
</blockquote>

etc. I had expected more real "stories" -- i.e. "So, a user walks
into a brokerage house and asks..." with the eye on the stories being one
to engage the imagination and from the story to distill the requirements.
That's kind of what I have done for middle school students with respect
to a Mars Voyage Simulation written in Perl (see:&nbsp; <a href="http://home.mindspring.com/~djrassoc01/mars/index.html">http://home.mindspring.com/~djrassoc01/mars/index.html</a>
) though it's not quite the same thing because I was writing the program
to fit some requirements of a Mars Space Camp that the students were taking.&nbsp;
Still, I tried (for middle school students) to weave a "simulation story"
around what I was doing so there would be a natural visualizable way that
the programming aspects would fall out and be meaningful to the students
rather than seeming to have just been pulled out of thin air.
Your students are several years older than mine so it may be that they
don't need (as I felt) the more concrete story telling to get their heads
into the problem -- in which case the comments are not that relevant.
--D.
 &nbsp;
--
 Dr. David J. Ritchie, Sr.
 djrassoc01@mindspring.com
 <a href="http://home.mindspring.com/~djrassoc01/">http://home.mindspring.com/~djrassoc01/</a>
 &nbsp;</html>

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