JavaGrinder Microworlds: A Web-Based Platform for Teaching Early Computing Skills

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(Public Law 111-5)资助的。这个授予北亚利桑那大学的工程教育研究奖将雇用研究人员开发一个名为“Microworld”的网络平台，作为学习Java语言编程的环境。这个平台将允许教师创建一个特定的“微世界”，模拟现实世界中的问题，如在社会背景下的医疗记录或机器人。使用“微观世界”的计算机科学将被视为一个令人兴奋的多学科领域，用户将建立解决问题的技能，理解良好的软件工程实践，并提高自我效能。通过弥合成功的入门编程环境与功能齐全的编程和软件工程环境之间的差距，“微型世界”将吸引更多的学生学习计算机科学，并提高留校率，这将增加能够填补需要计算机科学教育的职位的毕业生人数。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)This engineering education research award to Northern Arizona University will employ researchers to develop a web-based platform called "microworlds" as the context for learning Java language programming. This platform will allow instructors to create a specific "microworld" which simulates a real-world problem such as medical records or robotics in a social context. Using "microworlds" computer science would be seen as an exciting multidisciplinary field and users would build problem solving skills, understanding of good software engineering practice, and self efficacy. By bridging the gap between successful introductory programming environments and fully functional programming and software engineering environments, "microworlds" will attract more students to computer science and improve retention which will increase the number of graduates who can fill jobs which need computer science education.