Verena Specht-Ronique
Theaterhaus Frankfurt and The@rt
Inspired by many years of socio-cultural work in Zanzibar she studied Cultural Anthropology and Sociology at the Goethe-University Frankfurt. For 5 years she explored the hungarian Theatreworld working twice with the group Krétakör directed by Árpád Schilling and also on own productions with her platform The@rt. She establishes The@rt in 2007 and her latest co-production was a piece of work directed by Pawel Szkotak, Teatr Polski, Posen. Verena has won awards for her creative and performative mathematics theatre. Through many years of experience in leading Workshops her interest in cultural education has become stronger, especially for children and younger people. She recently works intensively at the Theaterhaus Frankfurt in the project ErzählZeit, on which she is doing her PhD and at the Theater Gruene Sosse as a ensemble member being part of various plays like „Als wir verschwanden“ and other projects.
Mike Fellows, University of Bergen, Norway
Michael Fellows is the Elite Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bergen and the Honorary Professor of Royal Holloway, the University of London. He is a founder of the parameterized complexity, a new branch of CS. He was awarded the von Humboldt Research Award in 2007 and the EATCS-IPEC Nerode Prize in 2014. Michael Fellows is a co-author of the famous book “Computer Science Unplugged”. In 2014 Michael Fellows received the International Gold Medal of Honor for Computer Science and Computer Science Education from the ETH University of Zurich.
CMSC ABSTRACTS
Pei An and Alessandro Gelmi (Free University of Bolzano – Faculty of Education)
pei.an@education.unibz.it, algelmi@unibz.it
An interactive adventure book for elementary school children.
This presentation is based on the creative project of an illustrated adventure book for elementary school children, carried out by two first-year PhD students in Pedagogy at the University of Bozen/Bolzano. Our research interests focus respectively on emotional education through visual art and on the development of imaginative education in the field of natural science and mathematics. In the book, these assumptions are reconciled with the philosophy of CS unplagged, with respect to the fundamental principles of programming: inspired by “kidbots” we have written and illustrated an interactive story in which children receive a request for help from a robot in search of its freedom, and can choose whether and how to help it, coding instructions to make it move in the world, and helping it to discover new emotions. Depending on the choices made, the story may take different turns, but the plot is always based on the challenge of programming, which becomes more intuitive and charged with emotional meaning thanks to the imaginative stimulus of visual storytelling: coding instructions and testing them allows children to interact with the protagonist, protecting it from danger and helping it on his path of growth and discovery. The book is conceived both as an individual reading and playing experience and as a didactic tool with which teachers can shape their lessons on programming in an imaginative way, and create interdisciplinary connections with artistic and moral education. Also, for this reason, in the final part, a silent version of the game map is included with a series of suggestions and open questions to reconstruct the adventure book in a creative way, both in its narrative aspects (e.g. imagine new characters) and in its programming aspects (e.g. expand the list of possible instructions).
Emmanuel Arrighi (University of Bergen, Norway)
Using the Micro Bit board to bring code into real life.
The Micro Bit is a small Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) based embedded system. It was designed by the BBC for educational purposes. The device has the size of a credit card and features several sensors and input/output systems. In addition to the compact form, the Micro Bit is easy to use. It can be programmed from a web browser, a phone, or a tablet. From a computer, there exists a web-based editor, so one just needs a web browser and to plug the Micro Bit via USB to start using it. There are also native code editors, such as Mu editor for Python, that make things even easier. They allow pushing code with one button to the device and access debug information from them. The software development kit (SDK) offers access to all the elements on the device with a low or high-level interface. This makes the platform ideal for easy to more advance projects. For example, the Micro Bit features a 5 by 5 grid of LEDs. Each LED can be controlled independently, but also, one can print text or a symbol by calling a single function. The same goes for the accelerometer: the orientation of the device can be queried but also one can react if the device is shaken. The many sensors and elements on the Micro Bit make it suitable for many different projects, as a step counter, a jukebox, or a Morse code decoder. Finally, the Micro Bit is open source, so a community has been formed around the platform and increased the available resources for it.
This talk will give a presentation of the Micro Bit, and illustrate the possibilities offered by the system through some examples of projects.
Malgorzata Bednarska (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland) mbed@amu.edu.pl
Presentation “Combinatorial games as reasoning training“: We will present exercises from workshops for children of all ages. The exercises are based on combinatorial games (as Tic-Tac-Toe), formulated in a language that everyone can understand, and yet behind which there are nontrivial mathematical concepts,
Ana Lucia Braz Dias (Central Michigan University) dias1al@cmich.edu
The underlying structures of some games of no chance.
This workshop will focus on the two-player games such as Nim, Northcotts, Turning Turtles, and Nimble. It will propose a sequence of games to participants and will lead them to unveil the mathematical structure that allows for winning strategies. Results of initial explorations will be used by participants to understand subsequent games, understanding both invariants and variations. Binary numbers and nim-sum are the main mathematical concepts underlying the analysis. Classification of moves into P or NP (favoring previous or next player) will also be explained in the workshop and applied by participants.
Michael Fellows and Frances Rosamond (University of Bergen) frances.rosamond@uib.no, Michael.fellows@uib.no
A Challenge on Trees: Infinity and Well-Quasi-Ordering of Trees
We will present a short discussion of Kruskal’s tree theorem and invite everyone to contribute some trees, even decorating them with birds and fruits and flowers.
Manish Jain and Jay Thakker (Center for Creative Learning, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India) ccl@iitgn.ac.in and Jay Thakkar j.thakkar@iitgn.ac.in, ccl@iitgn.ac.in
Maths and Computational Thinking Activities with A4 sheet, cards, and vegetables
The Center For Creative Learning at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India, has developed several activities that teach Maths and Computational Thinking concepts in a hands-on engaging manner using A4 paper, playing cards, and vegetables-fruits. These activities were done in teachers workshops and were also broadcast in a popular online program called ‘3030 STEM’ (https://ccl.iitgn.ac.in/3030stem) which received more than 1 crore views.
Adventures of A4 sheet: “What is the ‘4’ in A4?” is a simple but surprising question for many of us who use A4 paper on a daily basis. Starting from this question we explore how to make 30 meter long garland from single A4 sheet, finding √2 and similarity of triangles, reaching the Moon and sun with a single A4 sheet using exponential growth, converting a rectangle to square, silver rectangle, visual proof of area of octagon, and Erik Demaine’s single cut theorem. There is also a sustainable angle to A4. Number of sheets used by humanity in a year covers almost all earth, finding the volume of a sheet as teaspoon of water. Geometric series Spiral with A4, golden ratio in A4 and proving root2 is irrational by showing Equilateral triangle can never be on infinite A4 grid.
Computational Thinking and Card Magic: With some holes and slits cut on 26 cards and a thin stick, one can show in a surprisingly simple way the concept of binary representation and radix sort. Cards had binary radix sort on one side and ternary sort on another. Ternary sort will need 2 different sized sticks. The concept is then extended to higher bases. Sorting cards we developed had different contexts from history to Chemistry. Chinese Remainder Theorem is used to show another card trick that places your chosen card at the desired position in a deck of 27 cards. We also discuss “Why addition, subtraction and multiplication are done from right to left but division from left to right?” Open question of reachable of the max 26 factorial arrangements is an open question still.
Math in Vegetables: We use a cucumber to solve a puzzle based on orthographic projections, conic sections with a carrot, Archimedes equivalence of surface area of sphere and cylinder using sweet lime and bottle gourd, distortions in our maps, the sine wave hidden in a peel of bottle gourd, how sum of angles of triangle can be more than 180o, max sum of angle being 900 degree, and volume of 3 prisms equaling 1 cube using potato. Slant cut on a cucumber yields a sine wave, whose area is pi , however half the peel the area is independent of pi. Doing the same thing for a conical carrot reveals a different (non mathematical closed) shape. Conic section of cylinder as an ellipse of cucumber demonstrate using Dandelin sphere using orange of same radius as cucumber.
Maarten Löffler (Virtual Worlds Division, Utrecht University) m.loffler@uu.nl, <mloffler@vivaldi.net>
The Algorithm Experience
Computational efficiency lies at the heart of the research area of algorithm design. As we explain in every single paper, it is of vital importance, since data sets are growing ever larger, and advancing hardware cannot compete with the pitiless mathematics of asymptotic behaviour. The same growth in both data size and computation speed is also making the notion of efficiency more abstract, and more difficult to explain to inhabitants of a world in which instant computation is the norm.
We introduce the Algorithm Experience as a way for students of algorithms, or anybody, to get a feeling for the notion of computational efficiency by experiencing it first-hand. Essentially, the idea is simple: execute multiple algorithms that achieve the same result, by hand, on the same small input. By doing so, and assuming you make no mistakes, you will notice that one can get to the same results in different ways, and that some take longer than others. In addition, you may feel that some algorithms contain a lot of unnecessary repetition.
resources:
* main website, from which these resources are also available:
– https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~loffl001/alex/
* two booklets with instructions, for sorting and convex hull:
– https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~loffl001/alex/pdf/sorting.pdf
– https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~loffl001/alex/pdf/convexhull.pdf
* recordings of executions of the algorithms:
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpIqEDDJBso&list=PL-Q6q0vS7X-cwdN2PpVhsCSKkqn2m6wjb
* an explanation video explaining the algorithms convex hulls:
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zmm1g7n85E
* a previous publication:
– https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2019/10469/pdf/LIPIcs-SoCG-2019-65.pdf
Joek van Montfort (Montessori Lyceum Amsterdam) joek@xota.nl
Turtlestitch
My short talk will introduce Turtlestitch https://turtlestitch.org/ , an online coding environment which takes the Turtle geometry from the 70’s to programmable embroidery machines. For the Poznan edition of CMSC I had made the connection with the *rhytmical lines* of Waclaw Szpakowsi: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/02/15/rhythmical-lines/
Paweł Perekietka (Natalia Tułasiewicz Lyceum and Tarnowo Podgórne Lyceum, Poznan, Poland)
pawel.perekietka@gmail.com and Michael Ren (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland) renmich@amu.edu.pl
An Enigma Machine.
We would like to present an activity which will showcase the principle of operation of an Enigma machine, which was based on changing the substitution cipher every time a new letter was encoded. We will show the thought process that let Polish mathematicians break
the cipher by finding an effective method of searching for the initial Enigma ring settings, used by its operators on a particular day. We will be using a simplified, paper model of an Enigma machine for a six-letter alphabet.
Eljakim Schrijvers (Cuttle) Utrecht, The Netherlands. info@cuttle.org
Computational Thinking in the classroom using Bebras
Bebras is a world-wide project used to introduce computational thinking at every school level using an interactive annual competition. We will show some sample tasks from Bebras that are used to introduce computational thinking ideas. We will also give steps to get your country involved with Bebras.
Matt Skoss (Centralian Senior College/Mathematical Association of NSW, Australia)
1. Panda Squares and Reverse Engineering
Panda Squares will be explored by the CMSC community as a group, and a discussion following to ‘reverse engineer’ the task to give exposure to some mathematical ideas that intersect with computer science principles. Distilling these ideas will lead to some follow-up tasks that build on the initial puzzle, drawing on ideas of freedom and constraint. A large format and table-top version of Panda Squares is available from http://tiny.cc/panda-big and http://tiny.cc/panda-small. I am grateful to Dr David Butler from Adelaide University for introducing me to Panda Squares.
2. Making Sorting Networks and Maths Mats (5 mins)
Synopsis: I will share a quick way of making a double-sided mat that has an 8-item sorting network on one side and a 10 x 5 Maths Mat grid on the other side. I have been making the Maths Mats since 1994, and the Sorting Networks since encountering them at the first CMSC event in Darwin. Recently, I’ve discovered the power of making them with groups of teachers, and on one occasion, with Year 5-6 students at a remote NSW school in Coonamble, NSW.
Jacqueline Staub (University of Trier, Germany) staub@uni-trier.de
The human-robot-workshop.
Learning to solve problems by employing modular reasoning is one of the core competencies of algorithmic thinking. We demonstrate an activity that uses the model of a “human robot” inside a maze. Participants are controlling a robot that needs to be navigated to the end of the maze using just a specific set of commands. The tasks become increasingly trickier due to (i) firstly reducing the available vocabulary and (ii) later on introducing the concept of a module. Modules are larger building blocks that contain multiple instructions that cannot be separated from one another and which all must be executed in the given order. This workshop provides a hands-on experience visualizing how both the spatial and temporal reasoning skills of children can be fostered in a playful way without the need of using a computer. The provided learning materials have been tested by more than fifty school children aged 7 to 12 years old. Join our workshop and help us find the way out of the maze!
Brett Stephenson (Guilford Young College, University of Tasmania, Australia) TBA
Erlend Raa Vågset Erlend.Vagset@uib.no, Kenneth Langedal (University of Bergen, Norway)
Here is an outline of an idea of how to make a game that introduces the concept of a reduction. First, it might be good to do the simplest reductions of all (at least to start with): Independent set <-> Vertex cover.
1. Introduce both independent set and vertex cover. Use two very different stories. Examples could be:
Vertex cover: Who MUST get vaccinated to stop the spread of a disease through a “social network”
Independent set: Find as many activities as possible that doesn’t have a conflict in a schedule OR assume there are cats that have to be relocated to some neighborhood (Any two cats can’t live to close to each other as they are very territorial). How many cats can you settle in this neighborhood?
We will present two very simple “games”: Playground Placement (aka Vertex Cover) and Adoption Bureau for Cats (aka Independent Set). By letting them play these two “different” games on the same boards, we hope to be able to nudge the students into rediscovering a well-known reduction between these two problems. The game could also lead to many other interesting discussions about various concepts in computer science.
Both problems can be told to everyone, or people can be split into two groups, each learning one of the two problems.
2. (Optional) Let participants solve the problems separately on toy examples. Perhaps pair people so that each focus on a separate problem, one for each problem. This can be done on “game boards” with graphs.
3. Ask the participants to solve both problems together on a big graph drawn on tarp/ground. Let each person represent a vaccinated person/cat.
Additional:
a) Make observations about parallel programing at the last example
b) Other hard problems (like cops and robbers, 3-colouring, etc.) can most likely be played on the same set of graphs with only minor variations.
c) Further problems that people can try to solve on the graphs are shortest paths or min cut/max flow.
Sebastian Wild (University of Liverpool, UK) wild@liverpool.ac.uk
Demystifying neural networks for high school children
Artificial Intelligence is a deeply fascinating idea, abundantly dramatized in popular culture; it is almost constantly present in the media and expanding to more aspects of (children’s) lives. But while its ethical and philosophical ramifications are widely discussed in schools, the methods of machine learning and their (current) limitations are often just a side issue in the Computing curriculum.
For outreach during lockdown, we created an online/remote interactive lecture on machine learning with neural networks for secondary-school students (ages 12-16). In Part 1, a space adventure teaches classification methodology by identifying which aliens are friendly to you. Part 2 contains tailor-made versions of Tensorflow Playground that allow students to explore step by step the building blocks of neural networks and to finally craft their own classification networks. An optional third part for A-level students (ages 16-18) guides students through implementing neural-network classification in Python from scratch. All material is released under a Creative Commons license and available online at https://tiny.cc/ai-course
Petra Wolf (University Trier, Germany)
Explaining Computational Complexity via Computer Games.
The community of the conference ‘FUN with algorithms’ is investigating the computational complexity of computer games since several years. This research lead to a very interesting toolkit of so called ‘metatheorems’, introduced by Giovanni Viglietta, that characterized computational hardness of games on a more abstract level by considering game mechanics which need to be implementable in the game in order to realize some hardness reductions. Since then this toolkit was used to characterize the hardness of several well-known computer games by Aloupis et al., Viglietta, and Demaine et al.. Those computer games (such as Super Mario, Lemmings, etc.) are more accessible to undergraduate students and young people than abstract computational problems as they are most likely familiar with the setting of the game and the very nature of the game invites to play with the game mechanics in order to realize the gadgets needed for the reductions. Hence, this line of research is an excellent way to illustrate the technique of a reduction as small instances can also be realized in a level creator and can actually be ‘played’.
This talks aims to give an overview on the most interesting and impactful results from the FUN community on the computational complexity of computer games and gives some ideas on how this toolkit can be integrated into introductory courses for undergraduate students or into a summer camp for school students.
A demonstration of a reduction, realized in some game, is planned.
Yi-Mei Zhang yi-mei.zhang@mail.mcgill.ca (McGill University, Canada)
Research on Preservice teachers’ Perception of Mathematical Inquiry through Computational Thinking Unplugged.
Most pre-service teachers have no idea what is the perception, and practice of Computational thinking (CT), let alone how to build CT expertise within their future students. For addressing this challenge faced by pre-service teachers, we will join two teacher licensure courses designed for Mathematical Teachers at McGill University, investigating how pre-service teachers understand, perceive and apply CT into their mathematical inquiry within K-12 education. Besides, we overview how Mathematical Inquiry through CT unplugged activities has been used to inspire teachers and students. After that, we will invite 10-20 voluntary pre-service teachers from McGill University (undergraduate level) into our experimental research procedures (e.g experimental group, control group) by giving two illustrative CT activities, one based around CT unplugged mathematical storytelling by blocks and toys, second based on proposing mathematical questions after showing number pictures.
Our findings will include insights into how pre-service teachers understand, apply and perceive CT within the mathematical inquiry, and the interaction of complicated unplugged activities, computer science, and mathematical problem proposing/solving procedures. We will discuss reasonable strategies for pre-service teachers who intend to include CT into their mathematical learning and teaching process.
SPECIAL SESSION: FRIDAY AFTERNOON
Julie Hansson Tangen <julie@kidsakoder.no>, Laura Svenheim laura@kidsakoder.no
Lær Kidsa Koding is the premier Norwegian organization providing introduction to coding at every level. Two leaders from Lær Kidsa Koding will present an unplugged workshop about algorithms and computational thinking. The workshop will present the information at a level suitable for primary school and no programming experience is necessary. The workshop will be on Friday afternoon.
SPECIAL SESSION: FRIDAY NIGHT 6PM
Verena Specht Ronique (Berlin) and Matthias Mnich (TU Hamburg) specht.ronique@gmail.com, matthias.mnich@tuhh.de
Verena is an accomplished playwright and actress. Verena and computer scientist Matthias Mnich have worked together to produce a mathematical theatre production, Norwegians and the Easter Mysteries. The play will be presented on Friday evening 22 April. All welcome.