Karel releams C: Teaching good software engineering practices in CS1 with Karel the Robot

Abstract

This paper describes our implementation, teaching philosophy, and experiences with our C-based version of the widely known Karel the Robot introductory programming micro-language. Karel enables students to programmatically solve problems, using the C language, in a graphical two-dimensional world by moving the robot around while checking and manipulating its surroundings. We use Karel to solve the dilemma of either demanding too much or not enough from students during the first weeks of an introductory CS course, as interesting problems can be solved with limited input from lectures. Karel enables problem solving from day one of CS1, and encourages good software engineering practices such as top-down design from the beginning. We outline typical problems in the first weeks of CS1. We present a short overview of existing Karel implementations in various programming languages and our rationale for re-implementing Karel. We present our teaching philosophy and use of Karel in the classroom. We demonstrate how Karel is being used from a student perspective, along with a typical programming task. We discuss preliminary results of a survey and interviews with students from a first course in which Karel was used.