Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

International Conference on Informatics in Secondary Schools - Evolution and Perspectives

ISSEP 2005: From Computer Literacy to Informatics Fundamentals pp 156–165Cite as

Evolving Boxes as Flexible Tools for Teaching High-School Students Declarative and Procedural Aspects of Logic Programming

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 3422))

Abstract

During the last decade a new computer science curriculum has been taught in Israeli high schools. The curriculum introduces CS concepts and problem-solving methods and combines both theoretical and practical issues. The Logic Programming elective module of the curriculum was designed to introduce to students a second programming paradigm. In this paper we describe how we used evolving boxes, when teaching abstract data types (ADTs), to introduce the interweaving declarative and procedural aspects of logic programming. The following types of evolving boxes were used: (a) black boxes that could be used transparently, (b) white boxes that could be modified to suit specific needs, and (c) grey boxes that reveal parts of their internal workings.

We conducted a study aimed at assessing students’ use of ADTs. The findings indicated that the students demonstrated an integrative knowledge of ADT boxes as programming tools, and employed unique autonomous problem-solving strategies when using ADTs in programming.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Aho, A.V., Ullman, J.D.: Foundations of Computer Science. W.H. Freeman and Company, New York (1992)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Ben-Ari, M.: Understanding Programming Languages. John Wiley, Chichester (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Buechi, M., Weck, W.: A plea for Grey-Box components. In: Workshop on Foundations of Object-Oriented Programming, Zürich (September 1997), Available: http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~leavens/FoCBS/buechi.html

  4. Clancy, M.J., Linn, M.C.: Patterns and Pedagogy. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 31(1), 37–42 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Gal-Ezer, J., Beeri, C., Harel, D., Yehudai, A.: A high-school program in computer science. Computer 28(10), 73–80 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Gal-Ezer, J., Harel, D.: Curriculum and course syllabi for high school CS program. Computer Science Education 9(2), 114–147 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Eckstein, J.: Empowering framework users. In: Fayad, M.E., Schmidt, D.C., Johnson, R.E. (eds.) Building Application Frameworks: Object-Oriented Foundations of Framework Design, pp. 505–522. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Haberman, B.: Lists in Prolog. M.S. Thesis. The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel (1990) (in Hebrew)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Haberman, B., Ben-David Kollikant, Y.: Activating black boxes instead of opening zippers – A method of teaching novices basic CS concepts. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 33(3), 41–44 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Haberman, B., Scherz, Z.: Abstract data types as tools for project development – High school students’ views. Journal of Computer Science Education online (January 2003), http://iste.org/sigcs/community/jcseonline/

  11. Haberman, B., Shapiro, E., Scherz, Z.: Are black boxes transparent? – High school students’ strategies of using abstract data types. Journal of Educational Computing Research 27(4), 236–411 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Helm, R., Holland, M., Gangopadhyay, D.: Contracts: Specifying behavioral compositions in Object-Oriented systems. In: Proceedings of the European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming on Object-oriented programming systems, languages and applications (ECOOP/OOPSALA), Ottawa Canada, October 1990, vol. 25, pp. 169–180 (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kiczales, G.: Why are black boxes so hard to reuse? In: Invited talk, OOPSLA 1994 (1994), http://www.parc.xerox.com/spl/projects/oi/towards-talk/transcript.html

  14. Resnick, M., Berg, R., Eisenberg, M.: Beyond black boxes: bringing transparency and aesthetics back to scientific investigation. Journal of the Learning Sciences 9(1), 7–30 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Scherz, Z., Haberman, B.: The role of abstract data types in the project development process. Submitted to Journal of Computer Science Education (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Sterling, L., Shapiro, E.: The art of Prolog, 2nd edn. MIT Press, Cambridge (1994)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. Warford, J.S.: Black Box: A new Object-Oriented Framework for CS1/CS2. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 31(1), 271–275 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Dept., Holon Academic Institute of Technology, and Dept. of Science Teaching, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    Bruria Haberman

  2. Dept. of Science Teaching, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    Zahava Scherz

Authors
  1. Bruria Haberman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zahava Scherz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Informatik-Systeme, Universität Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria

    Roland T. Mittermeir

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Haberman, B., Scherz, Z. (2005). Evolving Boxes as Flexible Tools for Teaching High-School Students Declarative and Procedural Aspects of Logic Programming. In: Mittermeir, R.T. (eds) From Computer Literacy to Informatics Fundamentals. ISSEP 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3422. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-31958-0_18

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-31958-0_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-25336-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31958-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation