To help build inclusive student community, faculty can provide opportunities for students to interact with each other both in and outside of class. This is different from collaborative learning in that the primary goal is helping students make social connections rather than directly impacting learning. This can encourage the growth of peer-support networks and a student-centered learning community. Students who have a community related to their academic pursuits are more likely to persist.

Some suggestions

Break the ice. Use icebreakers to help students get to know each other. But be careful in the choice of activities. The goal is for students to see what they have in common. But some questions--e.g., those that draw out gender, race/ethnic, or class differences--can produce division rather than community.

Facilitate out-of-class connections. Help students connect with their peers outside of class by creating opportunities for them to discuss and meet. For example, facilitate the creation of study groups or special interest groups, and host fun, inclusive social events.

Teach professional behavior. Many students need explicit training on what it means act professionally. Build professionalism into your student culture by teaching students to treat each other with respect, how to disagree productively, and to value diversity.

Examples from the collection

Ice Breaker - Paper Airplanes

Pamela Silvers, Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College

This is an ice-breaker activity you can use early in a course to help students get to know each other in a low risk, fun way.

How to Do It: Students are given templates and instructions on how to build a simple paper airplane. Before making their plane, each student writes on their paper three things about themselves that they are willing to share. It's fun to encourage them to share creative or unexpected things.

They then send their plane off into the classroom, picking up others' planes and flying them. Don't be afraid to let pandemonium reign for a while! Then, have each student pick up a plane that is not their own. The goal, then, is for everyone to find the creator of the plane by introducing themselves to successive individuals, asking only questions pertaining to what's written on the plane. Once everyone has found their plane's creator, have students form a circle. The first person introduces the creator of their plane (their name and the 3 things). Then, that person introduces the creator of their plane, and so on until everyone has been introduced. 

Day One Ice Breakers

Kate Lockwood, St. Paul Academy

This a set of "icebreaker" activities are used on the first day of an introductory programming class to help create a welcoming learning environment for students and to lay the groundwork for discussions about how to be successful in Introductory Computing. I have included student-facing slides, a sign-in handout, and a short paper with tips for implementing these activities.

See more examples

Resources

Loops: "for"-loops

Bob Roos, Allegheny College

In this tutorial, students create a program in Java that utilizes the 'for' loop. The program must execute a series of actions, such as finding the product of all integers from 1 to 25, print the average grade for five (5) grade value (from 0 to 4) entries, and one additional loop application (as chosen by the student).

Classes and constructors

Bob Roos, Allegheny College

In this tutorial, students create a program that implements a class. Using Java, students must edit existing files (included) to create new variables, assign new values, and construct new objects.

If-statements; trivia questions

Bob Roos, Allegheny College

In this tutorial, students create a quiz. Using conditional statements (if) in Java, students must create a program that accepts user input, evaluates the entry against a specific value, and prints an appropriate output response.

Random numbers

Bob Roos, Allegheny College

In this tutorial, students create a random number generator. Using Java, students must create a program that prints a random integer, prints the value of a coin toss (H or T), prints a value from a discrete set of float/double values, prints a random lower-case letter, and two additional problems (as identified by the student).

Reading in words; "silly sentences"

Bob Roos, Allegheny College

In this tutorial, students create an interactive program. Using the Scanner class in Java, students must write a program that accepts user input and then displays a subsequent output.

Getting used to Java syntax (or, "Concise Guide to Java-ish for Tourists in Javaland")

Bob Roos, Allegheny College

In this tutorial, students work individually to explore the basic concepts of statements, sequence, and methods. Using pseudocode and various scenarios (such as making a milkshake, getting money from a cash machine, and doing laundry), students must examine the basic principles for creating a sequence of actions and then generate their own example. This activity is excellent for introducing the concept of sequences and statements to a student with no background in computer programming.

Addition Circuits

Christine Alvarado, Geoff Kuenning, Ran Libeskind-Hadas, and Zachary Dodds, Harvey Mudd College

In this lab, students work individually or collaboratively to design several circuits. Using a digital circuit design tool called Logism, students will build an 'adder' - a key component of a modern digital computer. This lab covers three 'adder' subcircuits (MyXOR, full adder, 4-bit ripple carry adder).

Introduction to UMLet and Design

Andy van Dam, Brown University

In this lab, students work collaboratively to create graphical representations of class relationships. Using UML and Java, students must build containment diagrams (shows an instance or instances of classes that are contained, or instantiated, within the class) and inheritance diagrams (shows how one or more class extends, or inherits, from the class to which the arrow is pointing).

Ants Vs. SomeBees

John DeNero, Tom Magrino, Eric Tzeng , et al., University of California, Berkeley

In this project students work individually or collaboratively to implement a tower defense game in which ants defend their colony from attacking bees. Students must implement several subclasses of the Ant class, each with their own unique abilities, as well as a class Water that descends from Place. The classes that students write must interact with several other classes.

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