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Minimum Time, Maximum Effect: Introducing Parallel Computing in CS0 and STEM Outreach Activities Using Scratch

Published: 13 July 2014 Publication History

Abstract

This paper presents our experiences and outcomes using Scratch to teach parallel computing concepts to students just learning about computer science. We presented versions of this material to middle school and high school girls during a STEM workshop and then to undergraduate university students enrolled in an introductory computer science course. Using the Scratch development environment, students are able to build, modify and observe the changes in the performance of applications which utilize multi-threaded, concurrent, operations. This includes scenarios which involve more advanced topics such as race conditions and mutex locks.
Developing these materials has allowed us to introduce these concepts in a programming environment much earlier than we have previously, giving instructors in down-stream courses the ability to build upon this early exposure. Survey results show that this approach resulted in a significant increase in both of these areas. For example, the number of students in our CS0 course who felt they could apply parallel programming to other problems using Scratch more than doubled, rising from 25 to 55 (out of 61 students that responded to both surveys). Likewise, the number of students who felt they understood what parallel programming means rose from 27 to 56. These results were achieved after just one class period. Similarly, 27 of the 37 girls responding to the workshop survey felt that they were capable of learning to write computer programs and 22 of 41 indicated they had an interest in a job using HPC to solve problems.

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Cited By

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  • (2025)An Introductory-level Undergraduate CS Course that Introduces Parallel ComputingJournal of Parallel and Distributed Computing10.1016/j.jpdc.2025.105044(105044)Online publication date: Feb-2025
  • (2021)Has the time come to teach parallel programming to secondary school students?Heliyon10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08662(e08662)Online publication date: Dec-2021
  • (2020)Teaching Parallel Programming for Beginners in Computer Science2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274155(1-9)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2020
  • Show More Cited By

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  1. Minimum Time, Maximum Effect: Introducing Parallel Computing in CS0 and STEM Outreach Activities Using Scratch

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        cover image ACM Other conferences
        XSEDE '14: Proceedings of the 2014 Annual Conference on Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment
        July 2014
        445 pages
        ISBN:9781450328937
        DOI:10.1145/2616498
        • General Chair:
        • Scott Lathrop,
        • Program Chair:
        • Jay Alameda
        Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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        • NSF: National Science Foundation
        • Drexel University
        • Indiana University: Indiana University

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        Association for Computing Machinery

        New York, NY, United States

        Publication History

        Published: 13 July 2014

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        XSEDE '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 80 of 120 submissions, 67%;
        Overall Acceptance Rate 129 of 190 submissions, 68%

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        View all
        • (2025)An Introductory-level Undergraduate CS Course that Introduces Parallel ComputingJournal of Parallel and Distributed Computing10.1016/j.jpdc.2025.105044(105044)Online publication date: Feb-2025
        • (2021)Has the time come to teach parallel programming to secondary school students?Heliyon10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08662(e08662)Online publication date: Dec-2021
        • (2020)Teaching Parallel Programming for Beginners in Computer Science2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274155(1-9)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2020
        • (2020)Research on Parallel Computing Teaching: state of the art and future directions2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9273914(1-9)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2020
        • (2015)Exploring concurrency on computational thinking toolsProceedings of the 14th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3148456.3148484(1-10)Online publication date: 3-Nov-2015

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