In this teaching paper, the creators of the Computational Creativity unplugged activities explain the rationale for their approach to combining instruction in computational thinking and in creativity, and provide guidance on implementing their activities in your courses.
Start by trying out a Computational Creativity assignment from the EngageCSEdu collection:
- Storytelling (CS concepts: debugging, testing)
- Everyday Object (CS concepts: abstraction, class design, encapsulation, functions)
Also, check out the Computational Creativity project website at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln: http://cse.unl.edu/agents/ic2think/.
The computational creativity activities are a great form of Collaborative Learning that helps build connections among students as they learn valuable group process skills.
The exercises also help Address Misconceptions about the Field of CS by having students explore creative, fun activities that are directly related to computation but do not require any programming skills. As project lead, Dr. Leen-Kiat Soh noted in an interview, "sometimes when we teach introductory courses we are too focused on the syntax, on how to program correctly. We lose sight of the goal of learning how to solve problems methodically, more systematically, and as a professional. These exercises help students learn to stop before they jump into coding."