The Art of Programming in a Technical Institute after the Italian Secondary School Reform

1. The Art of Programming in a Technical Institute after the Italian Secondary School Reform Alberto Barbero TechnicalInstitute"G. Vallauri“, Fossano, Italy Barbara Demo Dip. Informatica, UniversityofTorino, Italy ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

2. Summary • Whatkindof CS in high schools • Manifesto forInformatics in schools • Informaticsas a science • What do weteach? • High schoolItalianReform: workingwithteachersis a must • first yeartechnicalsecondaryschoolstudents:  programming • Structuredproblemsolving • A proposalusing Scratch ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

3. Manifesto ofInformatics in schools • Italian Secondary School Reform • What CS in high schools • Manifesto published in May 2010 by the main Computer Science academic associations in Italy • CINI, GII, GRIN • threebasicperceptionsofInformatics • Pragmatic : Hardware & software toolsto solve everydayproblems • Technological: knowinglanguages and systems in ordertoimplement • Scientific: Informaticsisalso the science fundinghw and swdevelopmentsof the middle of the XXiethcentury ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

4. ReformofItalian high schools • Opportunitytohave voice in definingcurricula • mandatory feeling involved in schools • Opportunityto work withteachers Activityheredescribed: • Spontaneousrequestsbyteachers • CooperationwithDscholaanAssociationofschoolsmanytechnicalbutnotonly • Otherassociations are interested , museums, … ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

5. newcurricula: • fromschools bottom up • fromacademia top down • it’s timefor a large common actionforshapingwhatshallbetaught • topupilsofdifferentagelevels • in differenttypesofschool The pointisexactly: what do wehavetoteach? ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

6. A proposalfor the curriculum of the first year in SecondarySchool • intheReformofItalian Sec. Schoolguidelines: • … Introductionto the conceptofalgorithm • notunknowntostudents • thus the introductive part can go quitequickly N. Wirth, Programdevelopmentbystepwiserefinement, CACM, April 1971 • programming • problemsolving ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

7. N. Wirth, Programdevelopmentbystepwiserefinement, CACM, April 1971 • “The creative activityofprogramming – tobedistinguishedfromcoding- … Itishereconsideredas a sequenceof design decisionsconcerning the decompositionoftasksintosubtasks and ofdata into data structures. • Scratch • Arduino and S4A • programming • problemsolving ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

8. Some examples: think a number game • Think a number • Add 1 • Multiplyby 3 • …….. • Tell me the numberyoufinishedwith • Now I can tellyou the numberyouthought at the beginning Work withmathsteachers (x + 1) *3 – x – 2 … = a x = (a – 1) / 2 ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

9. Think a number game ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

10. Calculator ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

11. High-low-guess-a-number • Think a numberbetween 1 and 999 • I willguessyournumberwithlessquestionsthanmanyhumans • Introducingtimecomplexity • …….. • ………… • In general: introducingtopropertiesofalgorithms ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

12. High-low-guess-a-number ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

13. WhatInformatics in high schools? • Programming and problem solving but not only from a technical point of view such as learn coding, also algorithms properties and systems organisation • Interactions with philosophy and history of science particularly in school types where these disciplines are present, for example in “Licei”, but also, in a softer form, in the other school types • Help from CS in proposing original ways for thinking to traditional concepts from other disciplines • Informaticsto look at some mathematicalconceptsfrom a differentperspective • Informatics and language ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

14. Papersby the “group”: • Alsowrittenwithteachers • A Contribution to the Discussion on Informatics and Robotics in Secondary Schools, sameauthors & F. Vaschetto, Robotics in Education, IEEE Conf., Wien, September 2011 • B. Demo & all., In and Out of the School Activities Implementing IBSE and Constructionist Learning Methodologies By Robotics, Chapter in “Robots in K-12 Education”, February, 2012 • E. Giovannetti, Whatkindof CS in secondaryschools, Conf. DIDAMATICA, Workshop “Informatics in SecondarySchools”, Torino, May 2011. ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

15. Manythanksforyourattention pleasewriteyourcommentsto barbara@di.unito.it barbero@vallauri.edu ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava

16. Teorema di Böhm-Jacopini: Qualsiasi algoritmo può essere trasformato in un algoritmo equivalente composto soltanto di combinazioni di sequenze, selezioni e iterazioni. Chiameremo ben strutturato un algoritmo composto di sole "strutture fondamentali". Sequenza: è la forma più semplice di procedura per strutturare un algoritmo e consiste in una serie di istruzioni una dietro l'altra che la macchina dovrà eseguire in fila. Selezione: struttura algoritmica, che inizia con la verifica di una condizione logica C, cioè di una affermazione che può essere soltanto vera o falsa, che continua con una sequenza di azioni A, se la condizione C è verificata, o altrimenti continua con la sequenza di azioni B, e in entrambi i casi si riconduce, poi, a una continuazione unica. Iterazione: programma in cui la procedura ripete il ciclo fin quando sussistono le condizioni per la ripetizione, mentre nel caso opposto si esce dalla struttura ripetitiva. • Fonti:Mauro La Torre; "Principi di informatica ", 1994, La Nuova Italia Editrice ISSEP 2011 - Bratislava