Wanda Dann
Research Interests

My research interests are: Visualization and Programming Languages.


Alice -- A 3D Animation Tool


I am working with Randy Pausch and the Stage 3 Research team at Carnegie Mellon University and Stephen Cooper at Saint Joseph's University. Our project involves the Alice programming environment. Alice is a 3D animation tool that can be used to visualize object-oriented programming concepts. Our research project is currently funded by the National Science Foundation, NSF-DUE # 0126833 and NSF-DUE # 0339734.

Our textbook, entitled Learning To Program with Alice, is available through Prentice Hall or college bookstores.


Publications


Textbook

Dann, W., Cooper, S., and Pausch, R., Learning to Program with Alice, July 2006, Prentice Hall.


Papers and Journal Articles

1) Dean, A., Moskal, B., Cooper, S., & Dann, W., "Using Alice software in middle schools." Presentation at MAA-AMS Joint Mathematics Meeting, San Antonio, TX, (Jan. 2006). 

2) Cooper, S., Dann, W., Dragon, T., Dietzler, K., Ryan, K., and Pausch, R. "Objects: visualization of behavior and state". 
      ITiCSE 2003, Thessaloniki, Greece, June, 2003.

3) Cooper, S., Dann, W., and Pausch, R. "Teaching Objects-First in Introductory ComputerScience". 
      Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education, Reno, NV, February, 2003.

4) Cooper, S., Dann, W., and Pausch, R. "Using Animated 3D Graphics to Prepare Novices for CS1". Accepted for 
       special issue in graphics, visualization and geometric computing in Computer Science Education.

5) Dann, W., Cooper, S. and Pausch, R. "Using 3D Interactive Animation to Provide Program Visualization as a 
       Gentle Introduction to Programming in Preparing Students forCS1". Visualization Workshop June, 2002.

6) Dann, W., Cooper, S., and Pausch, R., "Using Visualization to Teach Novices Recursion" in Proceedings of the 
      6th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, Canterbury, England, June 25- 27, 2001.

7) Cooper, S., Dann, W., and Pausch, R., "Alice: A 3-D Tool For Introductory Programming Concepts" in Proceedings of 
      5th Annual CCSC Northeastern Conference 2000, Ramapo, NJ, April 28-29, 2000.

8) Cooper, S., Dann, W., and Pausch, R., "Developing Algorithmic Thinking with Alice" in Proceedings of ISECON 2000, 
     Philadelphia, PA, Nov. 9 - 12, 2000.

9) Dann, W., Cooper, S., and Pausch, R., "Making the Connection: Programming With Animated Small Worlds" in 
     Proceedings of the 5th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, 
     Helsinki, Finland, July 11-13, 2000.

10) Dann, Wanda and Woodworth, Pat, Integrating Console and Event-Driven Models in CS1, SIGCSE Bulletin, 
      ACM Press, March 1999.

11) Grissom, Scott, Deborah Knox, Elana Cooperman, Wanda Dann, Michael Goldweber, Janet Hartman, Marja Kuittinen, 
      David Mutchler, and Nick Parlante, Developing a Digital Library of ComputerScience Teaching Resources, 
      SIGCSE Bulletin, ACM Press, December, 1998.