Abstract

Although many faculty and students agree that engagement and learning are enhanced by using practical, hands-on exercises in the classroom, it is rare that consideration is given to the harnessing of labor expended while transacting active learning in the field of computer programming. Professors expend effort creating programming assignments that are aimed at teaching and practicing core programming concepts, and students expend effort satisfying the assignment to earn points towards a grade for the class. We propose that if secondary school teachers and educators offer up suggestions for new software needed in their classroom the resulting information can be used to create programming assignments that will produce programs satisfying the expressed need. It is in this fashion that the fruitless labor of students in programming classes can be re-purposed to create heuristic tools for use in various areas of study.

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