Introducing middle school girls to fault tolerant computing

ABSTRACT

During summer 2002, we ran a workshop module for a group of 28 eighth-grade girls. Our aim was ambitious: to introduce these students, ages 12 and 13, to computer science by focussing on the deep intellectual topic of self-stabilizing distributed algorithms and by imparting an intuitive appreciation for their use in fault tolerance. At the same time, we hoped to dispel some negative stereotypes of computer science. The module was a success according to evaluations and comments from the participants. This paper describes the sequence of exercises we developed as an elementary-level introduction to the graduate-level topics of fault tolerance and self-stabilization. We report them with the hope that others will try them in college classrooms, as we plan to do.

REFERENCES

• 1: Tracy Camp, The incredible shrinking pipeline, Communications of the ACM, v.40 n.10, p.103-110, Oct. 1997 [doi>10.1145/262793.262813]
• 2: Jeri Countryman , Alegra Feldman , Linda Kekelis , Ellen Spertus, Developing a hardware and programming curriculum for middle school girls, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.34 n.2, June 2002 [doi>10.1145/543812.543828]
• 3: Edsger W. Dijkstra, Self-stabilizing systems in spite of distributed control, Communications of the ACM, v.17 n.11, p.643-644, Nov. 1974 [doi>10.1145/361179.361202]
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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Computer science education

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Human Factors

Keywords:
algorithm anthropomorphism, distributed algorithms, outreach, pedagogy