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The TryComputing.org portal, to be launched in 2012 as part of an IEEE New Initiative, will provide resources to inform pre-university students about the vast array of opportunities available in the rapidly growing and evolving field of computing. One such resource will be computing-focused lesson plans designed to help students ages 8 to 18, understand the essential facts, concepts, principles, and theories relating to computer science and software applications. The TryComputing.org Lesson Plan Competition invites IEEE Student Members, Graduate Student Members and Graduates of the Last Decade to submit plans on computing topics for inclusion on the TryComputing.org Web site.
Eligibility
IEEE Student Members, Graduate Student Members and Graduates of the Last Decade are eligible to compete in the IEEE TryComputing.org Lesson Plan Competition. Entrants may compete as individuals or in small teams.
Lesson plan topics and format
IEEE is in search of creative, engaging lesson plans that will expose students to fundamental activities of computing on topics such as:
- networks,
- information organization,
- modeling and abstraction, and
- algorithmic thinking and programming
Lesson plans should expose pupils to fundamental activities of computing and facilitate critical thinking and active problem solving. Lessons should encourage creativity in the construction of solutions, possibly with more than one achievable design outcome. Most of all, lesson plans should be fun! The format for TryComputing.org lesson plans will be modeled after lessons currently featured on TryEngineering.org.
Submission process
The IEEE TryComputing.org Lesson Plan Competition involves two stages.
Stage 1: The proposer submits a one-page summary lesson plan outline. If accepted after review, the lesson plan finalists are invited to submit a detailed lesson plan to the vetting committee.
Send outlines to IEEE via e-mail by 15 May 2011 and include the following information:
- Lead proposer name
- Lead proposer contact information
- Additional team member names
- PDF attachment of one page Lesson Plan Outline (one-inch margins, single-spaced text in either Times New Roman 12-point font or Arial 11-point font)
The lesson plan outline must contain the following:
- Lesson plan title
- Lesson Focus - which describes the lesson’s central point/concept and indicates the goal of the activity
- Lesson Synopsis - which provides an overview of the activity and includes a summary of the learning activity
- Age Range
- Objectives - which enumerate the prime goals of the lesson plan, includes what the students should be able to do during the lesson, and describes how the students demonstrate what they learned
Outlines should not cite the proposer’s own work, give his/her name, or in any other way indicate his/her identity or the name of his/her institution.
- Stage 2: Successful proposers will be invited to work with the portal team to finalize the lesson plan for inclusion on the IEEE’s new TryComputing.org Web site.
Submit full lesson plans to IEEE by 31 August 2011.
All lesson plans should :
- Be low cost (materials for the activities should cost no more than $50-$100 USD)
- Be free of copyright issues
- Include team-based activities
- Be written for a non-technical, international audience
- Be comprehensive and complete enough for the teacher to use “as-is”
- Identify which computational problem it is designed to solve
- Include safety alerts where necessary
- Include recommended ages on worksheets
- Be able to be completed over no more than 2 hours
- Where appropriate, include teacher answers
- Where possible, provide graphics of the lesson plan being executed or items built
Lesson plan outlines and full lesson plan submissions will be reviewed on the basis of relevance, quality and discovery.
Awards
Winners will be announced on 5 November 2011. The top lesson plans will receive a monetary award of $1000 US* along with a congratulatory letter to be copied to her/his Department Head and/or Dean (if applicable). The awardees will be invited to submit personal profiles that will be published on the TryComputing.org Web site along with their lesson plans. Awards will be distributed on 1 December 2011.
* Please note that a lesson plan is eligible to receive a single award of $1,000 US regardless of the number of members on a team.
Important dates
Outlines Due - 15 May 2011
Acceptance/Rejection Letters Sent - 1 June 2011
Full Lesson Plans Due - 31 August 2011
Awards Announced - 5 November 2011
Awards Distributed - 1 December 2011
