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Course Information

Siebel Center for Computer Science, room 0220, Wed 3:00 - 5:30

Course Description

Recently the ACM K-12 task force proposed a model curriculum for computer science education. Among the recommendations was a "Level II" course aimed at early high school, taken by all students, and covering a broad range of topics in Computer Science at an appropriate level. A preliminary draft of detailed learning standards will be available in January.
Level II Standards
One of many impediments to the widespread adoption of such a curriculum is the dearth of curricular materials. In this course we will work in teams to develop materials aligned with the new standards, and that cover a broad range of CS topics. We will not tie our hands completely to the Level II Curriculum. The general point is that topics and skills from that curriculum that can best be explored through some other vehicle (playing with spreadsheets or learning html, e.g.) can, well, best be explored through some other vehicle, and we shall not aim to include it. (Although I can imagine a nice lesson on how a spreadsheet works.)

Students will develop explorations for online distribution, including programming investigations using a variety [update: probablly one, and at most two] of kid-friendly environments including the Etoys scripting language provided in Squeak (smalltalk), and perhaps Logo (NetLogo, Microworlds Logo), among others. No prior knowledge of these languages is expected.

Requirements and Expectations

  • Show up and participate in weekly lab.
  • Become fluent in all programming languages we introduce.
  • Timely completion of each stage of each project, meeting and/or surpassing all requirements for a quality product.
  • Take a turn acting as course secretary
  • Help maintain the course swiki.
  • Help write A Squeaky Introduction to Programming

Keeping in Touch

The class newsgroup is class.cs498lbp . I expect most communication will happen over the newsgroup. Important information and late-breaking announcements may be posted to the newsgroup. Therefore, it is important that you read the postings there regularly. Information about how to access CS department newsgroups was sent out to you in an earlier email.
Alternatively: Email to class