Southwest Baptist
University News Release
Contact:
Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
BOLIVAR, Mo. –– Southwest Baptist
University’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) students recently
teamed up with local area teachers recently to create a series of fun games
which have a very serious intent: teaching Bolivar Public School students some
state mandated learning objectives.
The
games were created by as a class assignment by students in Computer Science 2,
a freshman level software engineering course. Each game had to be based on a
theme that would interest students in third, fourth, or fifth grade, and had to
help students learn at topic they were studying in class. The topics ranged
from the properties of electricity, to using fractions and making change, to
recognizing proper nouns. The themes ranged from Phineas and Ferb to the
Avengers.
“This
is one of those truly win-win situations where everyone benefits,” said Dr. Tim
DeClue, CIS Department Chair. “Our CIS students benefitted because they got to
apply software engineering principles to a real problem domain and because they
got to work with some talented teachers in the Bolivar Public School System. The
Intermediate School students benefitted from playing the games and learning,
and the teachers got to understand computer science and software engineering
better.”
Identifying
willing teachers and getting the support of the school’s principal was a key
aspect of the project. Laura Boyd, BIS
Principal, along with Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Endres, Mrs. Bolton, Mrs. Katrosh, Mrs.
Stehr, and Math Lab Teacher Mrs. DeClue facilitated the class project at by
serving as a project sponsor for the SBU CIS students. “Before a software
project can be built, the engineers have to collect the project requirements. That
is where the teachers came in to play,” said Dr. DeClue. “The SBU students
interviewed the teachers to find out what the software was supposed to
teach. Without the teachers there would
be no project.”
Southwest
Baptist University’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences was
founded in 1984 and is home to four full-time faculty, two faculty associates,
and approximately 80 students majoring in computer science, computer
information science, or web systems and design.
SBU CIS is a nationally recognized leader in undergraduate computing
degrees at purposefully Christian institutions.
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PHOTO
Caption: Michael
Gooley, SBU computer science major plays the educational game he wrote with two
BIS students.
Southwest
Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating
Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at
an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic
community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For
more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.
SBU’s
Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a
day at (417) 399-7918.
