What Can Beginners Learn from Video Games (twelfth RacketCon)

Beginners need to learn important Computer Science concepts revolving around problem solving, program design, modularity, documentation, testing, efficiency, running time, and program refinement. This presents unique challenges given students that are enthusiastic but have little experience quickly lose interest. Instructors must capture their imagination to channel their enthusiasm into learning the important lessons. An effective medium to do so is the development of video games. This talk outlines a design-based curriculum for beginners that is based on video game development.
Bio: Dr. Marco T. Morazán joined Seton Hall in 1999. He did his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University and his graduate work at the City University of New York. At Seton Hall he teaches at all levels of the Computer Science curriculum including his signature courses: Introduction to Program Design I and II, Organization of Programming Languages, and Automata Theory and Computability. His main research foci are the implementation of programming languages and Computer Science Education. As the graduate school advisor, he takes special pride in making sure that his students are prepared to continue studies outside of Seton Hall. Dr. Morazán is a strong proponent of undergraduate research opportunities and routinely has students collaborate with him on projects. Along with his undergraduate research students, he is responsible for an optimal lambda lifting algorithm and an effective mechanism for closure memoization. In Computer Science education, he is especially proud of the effectiveness of the Computer Science curriculum, based on the development of video games, he has developed for beginners.

[@rostislavsvoboda7013]

IIRC Marco gave a very similar talk on the ICFP 2022 in Ljubljana. Under the name "Why Functional Programming Matters in CS Education"