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（公法111-5）资助的。该工程教育研究奖授予北亚利桑那大学，将雇用研究人员开发一个名为“微世界”的基于网络的平台，作为学习Java语言编程的背景。该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，如医疗记录或社会背景下的机器人。使用“微世界”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，对良好软件工程实践的理解，以及自我效能。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，“微世界”将吸引更多的学生学习计算机科学，并提高保留率，从而增加毕业生的数量，他们可以填补需要计算机科学教育的工作。

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.