IRENE POLYCARPOU

 

Assistant Professor

Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences

Office: SH 224

Phone: (303) 273-3462 / Fax: (303) 273-3875

E-mail: ipolycar@mines.edu

Research

  • General Research Area: STEM Education and Educational Technologies
  • Research Interests
  • Educational Software
  • Educational Technologies
  • Students' Cognition and Learning Styles
  • Computer Science Curriculum Issues
  • Participatory Software Design
  • On-line Education (E-learning)
  • K-12 Education

Projects

  • National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
  • Project Title: Recruiting Women into Computer Science through Student Collaboration (Project Summary)
  • This project is sponsored by an NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund grant, sponsored by Microsoft Research
  • MATH-CITY: An Educational Game for K-12 Mathematics
  • MATH-CITY: An educational game for K-12 mathematics.
  • To download the prototype of the game click on the following link (use Internet Explorer (IE) because the link may not work properly with other browsers): Math-City Download
  • Note: You will have to complete a form and then dowload the zip file of Math-City. When you dowload the zip file, unzip the folder, and double click on 'Math City.jar' file to run the game.
  • CSM students involved with the project: Chris Navrides, Richard Walker, Eric Chiu, Chad Kembel, Julie Krause, Chris Poupore, Jeff Neet, Amanreet Bajwa, Nicholas Hansen, Levente Sipeki, Joe Zeimen, Alyse Haynes, Heidi Lewis, Zach Cabellk, Nathaniel Sapun.
  • BINARY BLASTER: An educational game to practice number conversion (decimal to binary)
  • To downlaod the prototype of the game click on the following link. Binary Blaster Download
  • Note: You will need to install Python and Pygame on your computer before you are able to run the game. You can read the game's "README.txt" file for more information
  • CSM students involved with the project: David Danford, Heidi Lewis, Julie Krause, Kyle Schulz.
  • SUN-TRACKER: A Solar Energy Simulation for K-12 Education
  • Click on the following link to run the simulation on-line: Suntracker
  • Note: The simulation runs better with Internet Explorer.
  • CSM students involved with the project: Chad Kembel.
  • PROOFS BY INDUCTION
  • A software to teach and learn proofs by induction for computer science.
  • CSM students involved with the project: Chris Navrides.

Teaching

  • SPRING 2011
  • CSCI 561: Theory of Computation (Blackboard)
  • FALL 2010
  • Math 358 / CSCI 358: Algebraic Structures(Blackboard)
  • CSCI 598B: Educational Technologies (Blackboard)
  • SPRING 2010
  • Math 358 / CSCI 358: Algebraic Structures (Blackboard)
  • CSCI 599: Education Software Development
  • FALL 2009
  • Math 358 / CSCI 358: Algebraic Structures (Blackboard)
  • CSCI 598 / CSCI 498: Theory of Computation (Blackboard)
  • SPRING 2009
  • Math 358 / CSCI 358: Algebraic Structures (Blackboard)
  • FALL 2008
  • Math 358 / CSCI 358: Algebraic Structures (Blackboard)

Publications

  • Polycarpou, I., Krause, J., Noring, M. (2011). "Binary Blaster: An Educational Game for Practicing Binary number Conversions." In the Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS 2011).
  • Kerri, S., Polycarpou, I., Krause, J., Rader, C. (2011). "Electronic Collaborative Learning with Math-City."In the Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS 2011).
  • Polycarpou, I. (2011). "Using Technology to Enhance K-12 Outreach in Materials Science." In the Materials Research Society (MRS) Bulletin, April 2011 Special Issue on K-12 Outreach, 36 (4), pp.290-297.
  • Polycarpou, I., Rader, C., & Kembel, C. (2011). "Sun Tracker: A K-12 Solar Energy Simulation." In the Proceedings of the Global Conference on Learning and Technology - Global Learn Asia Pacific 2011, Melbourne, Australia, pp.1519-1528
  • Polycarpou, I., Krause, J., Rader, C., Kembel, C., poupore, C., & Chiu, E. (2010). "Math-city: An Educational Game for K-12 Mathematics." In the Proceedings of the World Conference on Learning, Teaching, and Administration (WC-LT&A 2010), Cairo, Egypt.Social and Behavior Sciences, 9, pp. 845-850
  • Polycarpou, I. (2009). "An Educational Software for Proofs by Induction." In the Proceedings of the 2009 International Symposium on Engineering Education and Educational Technologies: EEET 2009. Available at: http://www.iiis.org/CDs2008/CD2009SCI/EEET2009/index.asp
  • Polycarpou, I. (2009). "Teaching Proofs by Induction in a Discrete Mathematics Course." In the Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS 2009), pp.3-7.
  • Polycarpou, I. and Pasztor, A. (2008). "An Interactive and Multimodal Software for Teaching Induction for Computer Science." In the Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS 2008), pp.326-331.
  • Polycarpou, I. (2008). "Induction as a Tool for Conceptual Coherence in Computer Science." In the Proceedings of the 46 th Association of Computing Machinery Southeast Conference (ACMSE 2008), pp.440-445.
  • Polycarpou, I, Pasztor, A., & Adjouadi, M. (2008). "A Conceptual Approach to Teaching Induction for Computer Science". In the Proceedings of the SIGCSE 2008 Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, p.9-13.
  • Polycarpou, I. (2007). "A New Approach to Teach Proofs by Induction for Computer Science". In the Proceedings of the Grace Hopper 2007 conference. (Poster Session)
  • Polycarpou, I., Pasztor, A., & Alacaci, G. (2006). "Sources of Students' Difficulties with Proofs by Induction: A Study." In the Proceedings of the Third International Conference in Teaching Mathematics at the undergraduate level (ICTM3), John Wiley & Sons Inc, ISBN 0471072709, paper 446.
  • Polycarpou, I. (2006). "Computer Science students' difficulties with proofs by induction: An exploratory study." In the Proceedings of the 44 th Association of Computing Machinery Southeast conference (ACMSE), pp.601-606.
  • Polycarpou, I. & Achilleos, P. (2000). "Cypriot Artists". Multimedia software about Cypriot artists. Ministry of Education of Cyprus. ISBN: 9963-8529-0-4.
  • Polycarpou, I. & Achilleos, P. (2000). "User Manual for Cypriot Artists software" and "Design and Analysis for Cypriot Artists software." Ministry of Education of Cyprus.

Education