Evolving boxes as flexible tools for teaching high-school students declarative and procedural aspects of logic programming

Abstract

During the last decade a new computer science curriculum has been taught in Israeli high schools. The curriculum introduces CS concepts and problem-solving methods and combines both theoretical and practical issues. The Logic Programming elective module of the curriculum was designed to introduce to students a second programming paradigm. In this paper we describe how we used evolving boxes, when teaching abstract data types (ADTs), to introduce the interweaving declarative and procedural aspects of logic programming. The following types of evolving boxes were used: (a) black boxes that could be used transparently, (b) white boxes that could be modified to suit specific needs, and (c) grey boxes that reveal parts of their internal workings. We conducted a study aimed at assessing students' use of ADTs. The findings indicated that the students demonstrated an integrative knowledge of ADT boxes as programming tools, and employed unique autonomous problem-solving strategies when using ADTs in programming. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.