Bootstrap: Teaching Mathematics and Problem-Solving through Programming Emmanuel Schanzer CitizenSchools.org Friday, November 16, 2007 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Fuller Labs 320 Bootstrap uses computer programming to teach an adapted college algebra to middle-school students. Our delivery network, the Citizen Schools after-school program, is based in thirty middle schools nationwide. Students were able to design and create several interactive games in just ten ninety-minute work periods, and preliminary data suggests that these students develop a deeper understanding of algebra more quickly than their peers, and score better math classes during the school day. We posit that the true innovation of Bootstrap is to treat Computer Science as something tangible and teachable at the middle school level, and therefore should be held accountable to the same evaluations and constraints as a regular Biology or Life Science class. The teaching tools developed for Bootstrap are coupled with a number of core pedagogies, which are discussed here. Save for a few controversial or innovative ideas, educators will instantly recognize the majority of them as common practice for middle school classrooms. We will discuss these pedagogies, as well as the implementation and results. We will also touch briefly on the state of current 'Teaching' IDEs, and address the success and failure of current solutions using the lens of a "Pedagogic IDE". ______ Emmanuel Schanzer is currently the Program Director for Bootstrap, an after school program which teaches functional programming to at-risk middle school students. He is a graduate of Cornell University's Computer Science program. After some time as a Program Manager with Microsoft's CLR and MacBU units, he worked in the Boston Public Schools as a teacher and mentor, and was employed by Citizen Schools from Fall 2004 to Spring of 2006. Part of his work at Citizen Schools involved collaboration with Matthias Felleisen at Northeastern University, where he developed the curriculum that forms the foundation of Bootstrap. Emmanuel recruited student volunteer teachers, developed training materials, arranged the piloting of the curriculum in Boston Public Schools and coordinated the partnership between the NEU and Citizen Schools. He received a Partners in Learning Grant from Microsoft this Spring, which is funding the national expansion and evaluation of Bootstrap. This work will serve as the basis of his Doctoral Dissertation, which he is beginning at Harvard University. He still lives and teaches in Dorchester, MA. Host: Kathi Fisler Refreshments will be served.

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