Education
Engineering

To return to the comprehensive topic list, as well as a list of authors, go to the theses index page.

 
Education

Jasmine Bryan, 2008

"High School Travel Planner"

College recruitment has become a highly competitive field. In order to be successful admission offices are continually evaluating their processes and procedures to ensure they are working at maximum efficiency. The high school visit is a staple of admission offices� recruitment plan. The high school visit allows access to prospective students and affords the opportunity to meet guidance counselors who influence college selection. Choosing which schools to visit is a complicated process which takes into consideration the following elements: past school visit history, applicant history, enroll history, and schools at which one has future prospects. In addition, admission professionals must also plot the schools on a map to determine which schools can realistically be visited in a day. Synthesizing all this information can be difficult even for the experienced admission professional. My High School Travel Planner is an innovative web tool that combines a Google Map with past visit, recruit, applicant, and enrollment history in one web site, allowing for easier travel planning. Because all the data is presented in an easy to evaluate method, data is driving the admission counselors� decisions. My High School Travel Planner not only provides summation data: it also informs the user as to whether the high school is considered a primary or secondary school based on the school�s past enrollment behavior.

Sonya Barry, 2007

"Computer Skills Are Not Enough—Computer Science for Middle School Students"

There is no official curriculum for computer science or programming in American primary education. While our students are becoming more and more internet-literate, they are not necessarily becoming more computer literate, and most schools that have computers are teaching computer skills rather than computer science. Meanwhile colleges are adding computer science or programming courses as part of their general education requirements. This thesis is focused on bridging that gap by introducing 8th graders to general programming concepts using Java. By the end of this module my students have a basic understanding of some OOP specifics such as methods, objects, and classes, as well as some bigger concepts including program design and logic.

Jeri Countryman, 2001

"Bridging the Gender Gap in Computer Science"

This report describes a computer science curriculum that was designed and implemented for middle school girls in Oakland, California. The curriculum uses animation to attract the girls to the project while teaching them basic programming concepts. The lessons cover the features of the Stagecast Creator program, which include variables, if statements, loops, and documentation.

Alegra Feldman, 2001

"A Computer Science Curriculum for Girls"

There is a large disparity between the number of girls and the number of boys studying computer science. Research has shown that technology is often perceived as a males' domain. My research involved teaching urban public school girls enrolled in a technology club called Techbridge. This thesis focused on trying to encourage, interest, and educate these middle-school girls, who were just beginning their institutional use of computers. The content is a comprehensive computer science curriculum consisting of both hardware and software lesson plans. The lessons were tailored to the girls' interests and methods of learning by using projects that were hands-on, goal-oriented, creative, and collaborative.

Melissa Green, 1998

"Multimedia Computer Science Tutor for High School Students"

This multimedia tutor is designed as a supplement to an introductory computer science course for the secondary level. Computer Science is a discipline with many concepts that are not easily communicated by linear media, as they cannot be observed in real time. Multimedia, or multiple media, is an ideal method of conveying complex dynamic topics in Computer Science that are difficult to comprehend. The content of this tutor is based on the Model High School Computer Science Curriculum developed by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The tutor allows the user to investigate and review topics of her choice at her own pace and is sufficiently interactive to allow the user to control the action and freely navigate through the content.

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Karen Inman, 1998

"An online reading tool for students of French"

Reading in a foreign language is one way students learn that language. Professors assign reading, then the students discuss the text in the next class, in the foreign language. These reading assignments can be difficult to finish because most students must stop frequently to look up a word or phrase in a dictionary. Once a student has stopped to look up a word, she has to �get back into� the story. These constant interruptions in the reading process make it hard to understand the text. This thesis proposes an online reading tool which automates the professor�s task of annotating texts for non-native students of French and displays the prepared test in a familiar Web browser format, where looking up a reference is a simple matter of clicking on a hyperlink. The goal of the project is to assist the professor in preparing texts and to improve students� understanding of the material they are reading. Such a tool must be easy to access, minimizing the time spent preparing the text and learning the tool, while giving the students access to electronic texts regardless of platform or student�s computer expertise.

Renata L. Tervalon, 1996

"A Trip Through Geologic Time"

As a partial response to the continuing need for improved science education in the United States, a prototype for a curriculum tool to teach earth science in the middle school is presented. "A Trip Through Geologic Time" entails an interactive multimedia program that examines the geologic development of our planet during two central geologic time periods: the Jurassic (192 million year ago (mya) to 135 mya). For each geologic time period, students can explore plate tectonics and fauna through video clips, animated graphics, and still photographs that elucidate the subject matter. A second unit exploring the history and development of the theory of plate tectonics is presented. A third unit on plate boundaries examines the three types of plate boundaries: transform, convergent, and divergent. The prototype ends with and interactive exercise where children can move continents like puzzle pieces from their location 190 mya to their present day locations. To enhance off-line learning opportunities activity sheets focusing on language arts and mathematics are provided.

Kathleen Maguire Candland, 1995

"A New Assessment Tool for Teachers in CSILE Classrooms: Participatory Design and a Case Study of Use"

Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environment (CSILE) is a computer-mediated environment developed to support a problem-based curriculum and foster intentional learning (Bereiter & Scardamalia 1989) and progressive discourse (Bereiter 1994, Scardamalia & Bereiter 1993). While studies have shown CSILE to be a highly effective addition to the classroom (Brett 1993, Scardamalia & Bereiter 1993), the process by which teachers must assess student work in CSILE is time-consuming and cumbersome. The purpose of the project was to involve teachers in the design of a software-based tool that would improve acknowledged problems for teachers in the assessment of student work in CSILE. This thesis examines that design process and how the addition of the tool to CSILE shifts teaching and assessment activity in CSILE through a detailed case study of one teacher�s use of the tool. In this exploratory study, a number of interesting changes have been demonstrated. Additional experimentation is required to determine whether theses changes are generalizable to a larger population.

Dave Ball, 1993

"Educational Software for Teaching Business Math on the Net"

Simulation of a small business on the Next for a High School Business Class

Parwathi Mirlay 1990

"Database: A Vision for Teachers"

Development of four self-paced tutorials to illustrate the effective use of databases as an educational tool at the elementary school level. These tutorials have become part of the Teacher Credential program at Mills College.

Sharon Weatherby, 1990

"The World Zoo: Can Children Be Led to Learning by Computer Software?"

An interactive computer environment that allows them to add researched information to an existing computer database. Students are invited to do projects to develop areas of a computer database that have been intentionally left undeveloped. The database is a HyperCard application designed to teach 8 to 10 year old students about animals. The stack contains pictures of the animals, information about each animals' habitat and family life, a reproduction of selected animals' sounds, and maps showing where a particular animal can be found in the wild. In addition, the database gives students the opportunity to draw pictures, write stories or essays, or start a project of their own using "The World Zoo" as a template. The software was tested with various aged students to examine whether or not students are interested in doing research on their own and in developing the database. The results show that students are interested in developing the database. Thew results show that students are interested in developiing the database. In order to show conclusively that the software can encourage students to do research, long-term testing is necessary (perhaps over the course of one or two school years). The preliminary indication, however, is that software can indeed stimulate students to do research on their own.

Sheila Larkin Brethauer, 1989

"Repurposing Educational Television for an Interactive Videodisk System in a Public Space Environment: Selection and Production Techniques"

Discussion of two aspects of videodisk production: criteria for selecting repurposed video material and video production techniques.

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Chandra Sen, 1989

"An Interactive Videodisk Project"

Development of interactive videodisk activities to motivate student interest in mathematics.

Andrea Silvestri, 1989

"Interface Design for a Computer-Based Multimedia System in a Public Space Environment"

Development of the interface and navigational strategies for an interactive videodisk system in a science museum.

Alexandra Smith, 1989

"ICSA: Interdisciplinary Computer Science Advisor"

Development of a prototype desktop expert system with a graphical interface to manage and access data about the Interdisciplinary Computer Science Program at Mills College.

Elizabeth Kelley Quigg, 1989

"The Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Mathematics Software with Interactive Video"

Development of interactive videodisk activities to explore the effectiveness of interactive video for mathematics education in a museum setting.

Margo Nanny, 1987

"The Mathmagic Lab"

Development of multimedia software to enhance the learning value of an educational Disney film on mathematics.

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Engineering

Ming Hua Wang, 1993

"Implementation of Piecewise Analysis in SPICE"

Circuit simulation is to shorten design cycle for integrated circuit designs with better performance. The general purpose circuit simulation programs such as SPICE have been widely used in integrated circuit industry for over the last two decades. As the size and complexity of integrated circuits is constantly increasing, the need of faster simulators is. In this thesis, some improvement over SPICE will be presented.

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