Related papers: The Bricklayer Ecosystem - Art, Math, and Code
Project-based learning (PBL) is an instructional method that is very helpful in nurturing students' creativity, but it requires significant time and energy from both students and teachers. Large language models (LLMs) have been proven to…
The explorative and iterative nature of developing and operating machine learning (ML) applications leads to a variety of artifacts, such as datasets, features, models, hyperparameters, metrics, software, configurations, and logs. In order…
K-12 teachers employ Engineering Design Challenges to help students learn about the Engineering Design Process hands-on. They use techniques like hard scaffolding questions to guide the students as they think through the different stages of…
Blockchain is an enabler of many emerging decentralized applications in areas of cryptocurrency, Internet of Things, smart healthcare, among many others. Although various open-source blockchain frameworks are available, the infrastructure…
Large language models (LLMs) for code have become indispensable in various domains, including code generation, reasoning tasks and agent systems. While open-access code LLMs are increasingly approaching the performance levels of proprietary…
Creating interactive digital environments for gaming, robotics, and simulation relies on articulated 3D objects whose functionality emerges from their part geometry and kinematic structure. However, existing approaches remain fundamentally…
Advances in natural language processing have resulted in large language models (LLMs) that are capable of generating understandable and sensible written text. Recent versions of these models, such as OpenAI Codex and GPT-3, can generate…
In this paper we report a study in which we have developed a teaching cycle based closely on Bloom's Learning for Mastery (LFM). The teaching cycle ameliorates some of the practical problems with LFM by making use of the STACK online…
Large language models face intrinsic limitations in coding with APIs that are unseen in their training corpora. As libraries continuously evolve, it becomes impractical to exhaustively retrain LLMs with new API knowledge. This limitation…
Large language models (LLMs) are revolutionizing education, with LLM-based agents playing a key role in simulating student behavior. A major challenge in student simulation is modeling the diverse learning patterns of students at various…
Programming education is becoming important as demands on computer literacy and coding skills are growing. Despite the increasing popularity of interactive online learning systems, many programming courses in schools have not changed their…
Visual understanding of geometric structures with complex spatial relationships is a fundamental component of human intelligence. As children, we learn how to reason about structure not only from observation, but also by interacting with…
We present an approach to generate novel computer game levels that blend different game concepts in an unsupervised fashion. Our primary contribution is an analogical reasoning process to construct blends between level design models learned…
Educational diagrams -- labeled illustrations of biological processes, chemical structures, physical systems, and mathematical concepts -- are essential cognitive tools in K-12 instruction. Yet no existing method can generate them both…
Teachers face several challenges when presenting the fundamental concepts of programming in the classroom. Several tools are introduced to give a visual dimension to support the learning process. These tools rely on code blocks, easily…
Reasoning about code and explaining its purpose are fundamental skills for computer scientists. There has been extensive research in the field of computing education on the relationship between a student's ability to explain code and other…
In this paper, we present Code Shrew, a new software platform accompanied by an interactive programming course. Its aim is to teach the fundamentals of computer programming by enabling users to create their own drawings and animations. The…
Professional creative software has steep learning curves for novices due to complex interfaces, limited guidance, and unfamiliar terminology. To support educators and tool creators in addressing learner challenges, we introduce TaskLens, an…
Blocks-based programming has become the lingua franca for introductory coding. Studies have found that experience with blocks-based programming can help beginners learn more traditional text-based languages. We explore how blocks…
Humans have long relied on visual aids like sketches and diagrams to support reasoning and problem-solving. Visual tools, like auxiliary lines in geometry or graphs in calculus, are essential for understanding complex ideas. However, many…