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How to make abstract ideas more concrete

Published:01 January 1975Publication History
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Abstract

Games that students play, either against each other or against the computer, can help to make some of the abstract ideas from the theory of computing seem more concrete and more interesting than they now appear to many students. In this paper, I describe the general structure of some games based on such theoretical constructs as the Turing machine, the context-free grammar and the like. I indicate some of the ways that such games can be “built” either using pencil, paper and scrap materials or using computer programs. Some experiences with the use of such games, and some of their mathematical and pedagogical implications, are discussed.

References

  1. 1 Kugel, Peter and Owens, Martin, "Learn by playing", presented at the Annual Meeting of the AAAS, Berkeley, California, 1965.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  2. 2 Turing, Alan M., "On computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem", Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, Series 2, Vol. 42, pp. 230-265, 1936.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  3. 3 Minsky, Marvin L., "Recursive unsolvability of Post's problem of 'tag' and other topics in the theory of Turing machines", Annals of Mathematics, Vol. 74, 437-454, 1961.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  4. 4 Miller, George A., "Project Grammarama", in the Psychology of Communication, Basic Books, 1967.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  5. 5 Bruner, Jerome S., The Process of Education, Harvard University Press, 1960.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar

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  1. How to make abstract ideas more concrete

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        • Published in

          cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
          ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 7, Issue 1
          Proceedings of the 5th SIGCSE symposium on Computer science education
          February 1975
          209 pages
          ISSN:0097-8418
          DOI:10.1145/953064
          Issue’s Table of Contents
          • cover image ACM Conferences
            SIGCSE '75: Proceedings of the fifth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
            January 1975
            221 pages
            ISBN:9781450373982
            DOI:10.1145/800284

          Copyright © 1975 ACM

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          Association for Computing Machinery

          New York, NY, United States

          Publication History

          • Published: 1 January 1975

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