Pedagogy for Computer Science is still a young area of research where many contributions can be made. I would like to conduct research on a multi-sectioned Missouri State University Department of Computer Science course in the Fall 2020 semester. I will use this proposed Spring 2020 CSC696 course to develop a hypothesis and build an experiment for the Fall 2020 semester.

Project Milestones

Develop a good hypothesis
- Does a tactile demonstration for a theoretical computer science concept increase student understanding of the concept? For example, would students better understand a sorting algorithm if they performed each step of the algorithm with a set of playing cards?
Develop an expirement to test the hypothesis
- Use 4 sections: 2 test sections and 2 control sections
- Teach the concept of Turing Machines to all 4 sections
  - The 2 control sections receive a traditional lecture
  - The 2 test sections recieve a lecture with a hands-on demonstration
- Test all 4 sections on the same set of Turing Machine questions
  - Use as a set of bonus questions on one of the course exams
By February 24th, 2020
- Submit an application for review to Missouri State University’s Institutional Review Board
By April 6th, 2020
- Present the proposed research to the instructors of a multi-sectioned course

Meetings and Work

Meetings would be held about once a week for the duration of the Spring 2020 semester. In addition to working towards the above project milestones, I would also use the semester to read STEM Pedagogy methods and Computer Science Pedagogy research papers. The hope would be that this research can be repeated in future semesters.