Department - Author 1

Computer Engineering Department

Degree Name - Author 1

BS in Computer Engineering

Date

6-2015

Primary Advisor

Zoe Wood

Abstract/Summary

In recent years, the demand for people educated in computer science has continued to grow as the possible applications of software expand. For this reason, it is important to not only offer young adults the ability to learn computer science, but also to intrigue them with interesting and engaging applications of computer science. Organizations, such as the CollegeBoard and Exploring Computer Science, have been working to make computer science education more available and desirable to younger audiences. This project contributes to these goals by creating and implementing a curriculum for teaching object-oriented programming to high school students through video game programming. Students were taught how to use a third-party game engine called Unity to create complex 3D games. The curriculum was designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the tools and concepts they needed to make a game, and provided students with several hours of learning time to create their own games. This course was taught at San Luis Obispo High School to a group of 20 students. A survey was taken by 14 of the 20 students before and after the course. This survey revealed that half of the students who did not understand objects in programming before the course did understand objects after the course. The survey also showed that many students were able to learn C#, an object oriented programming language, during the course. Lastly, most of the students ended the course with a completed project that could be added to a portfolio.

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