Circle of Life: Microworld Project at the End of CS1

Microworlds have been proposed as an educational approach for engaging students and increasing motivation. However, the use of microworlds has largely been studied in the initial phases of learning to program (or entire courses). We adopted a microworld project at the end of our CS1 course to investigate its use in teaching students composition and creation of larger programs rather than initial familiarity with programming constructs. We here compare the impact of using a scaffolded, microworld project over a (previously used) non-scaffolded, non-microworld project. Based on data from N=303 students exposed to the two kinds of projects (145 in 2022 vs 158 in 2023), we compare the two cohorts according to a test of learning (TOL) based on the final exam grades. In 2023, we studied the impact further by considering the feel of learning (FOL) based on a qualitative student survey. The results show that the student grade-point average (TOL) increased significantly when we adopted the microworld project. Further, the microworld project appears to produce a high FOL.