A&M-Commerce CSIS Professors Awarded Grant from National Science Foundation

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A&M-Commerce professors of computer science and information systems, Dr. Omar El Ariss, Dr. Dongeun Lee and Dr. Kaoning Hu have been awarded a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation for their research project titled, “Multilingual Computational Thinking: Teaching Introductory Programming Classes Through Low-Level and High-Level Programming Languages.”

The project intends to teach computational thinking and multiple programming languages simultaneously through the use of video game development. The research will be applied to three computer science courses at A&M-Commerce including COSC 1436: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming; COSC 1437: Programming Fundamentals II; and COSC 2336: Data Structures and Algorithms.

The pedagogic approach integrates multiple learning theories into the instructional design in order to reach students with varying backgrounds and learning styles.

“We are three computer science professors who believe in the importance of passion for what is being taught,” said El Ariss. “We took our childhood passion for playing video games and integrated it with our passion for teaching introductory programming.”

“We are hopeful that our first-of-its-kind pedagogy will teach students to think computationally and create a passion for computer science.”