Hi Kirby, I've always had a toe in both camps, namely the lambda and delta camps, as you so aptly put it, and often blurred the boundaries between the two whether I was teaching a CS or Mathematics class. I was often lauded by my supervisors at such creativity for over 30 years. Unfortunately, even before the pandemic, I was close to retiring as a new crop of administrators did not like my creative approach and made my life increasingly difficult for me at my old high school. Teaching remotely at the college has been a great relief!
As far as Gary & Maria Litvin, I have used their discrete Math text for years as the foundation for my intro CS course in python which I used as a prerequisite for my AP CSA course. Speaking of Gods of CS education, I also used textbooks by Cay Hotstmann in my AP CSA and CSAB courses over the course of many years to great effect. Gary also wrote books for AP CS and AP Calculus that I highly recommend. If you are interested, please see my CS courses here, http://www.patreon.com/calcpage2020 Over this pandemic year, I had the opportunity to attend several conferences I hadn't been able to before. One of them was put together by codehs.com and as a parting gift I just received a book in the mail. Jeremy Keeshin, CEO and founder of codehs, wrote this book entitled "Read Write Code." The theme being that coding is the new literacy that students need to be exposed to now more than ever in our new economic and career landscapes in the new millennium. Sounds like everyone else is finally starting to catch up to us! What do you think, Kirby? Be well, Al A. Jorge Garcia Applied Math & CS Nassau Community College http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com On Tue, Jun 29, 2021, 15:13 kirby urner <kirby.ur...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Mon, Jun 28, 2021 at 5:00 PM calcp...@aol.com <calcp...@aol.com> wrote: > >> Hi Kirby, >> Cool stuff! Meanwhile, back at the college, I'm teaching Multivariable >> Calculus using Jupyter Notebooks with NumPy and SymPy. See my blog if you >> are interested, >> http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com >> >> > Yes. As usual, you're way ahead of me, both in terms of the > hardware and Python. I've often accessed your online > learning materials, including recorded online sessions. > > What I've discovered about the high school market is a lot > of parents, and by extension their kids, are focused on > winning prizes through tournaments i.e. speed contests > that require knowing which algorithms to use and how > to use them (the specific language doesn't matter). > > The school I'm teaching at has historically focused on > tournaments run by ACSL (American Computer Science > League) and USACO (USA Computing Olympiad). > > Also, given the high school curriculum map is so calculus > heavy, there's not much time left for the number and/or > basic group theory type stuff I consider on the "lambda calc" > track (where ordinary calculus is "delta calc" in contrast). > > My preferred model of K-12 is to bifurcate the track around > Algebra (8) and offer two pathways: delta and lambda calc > tracks (OK to sample both of course). > > Thankfully, cryptography is so ubiquitous these days and > so core to security, that we no longer need to worry about > the "relevance" of our alternative topics. > > It's only under the heading of "enrichment" during summer > school wherein I have the freedom to explore such as > Euclid's Extended Algorithm, Fermat's Little Theorem, > Euler's Theorem etc. The mainstream high school > curriculum does not usually motivate study of such > topics, all building to RSA. > > The Litvins text used at Phillips Andover (mentioned in > my video) was the one exception we've been discussing > over the years here on edu-sig. By now, we have > additional crossovers (e.g. Math Adventures > With Python by Peter Farrell) that make no sharp > distinctions between coding and math. The blurrier > the better. > >> Be well, >> A. Jorge Garcia >> Applied Math & CS >> Nassau Community College >> http://www.patreon.com/calcpage2020 >> >> PS retired from High School due to pandemic... >> > > My Advanced High School Topics with Python is > through a private online school in Greater Portland. > > We did go through an historical chapter wherein Oregon's > legislature agreed, in principle, to open up the high > schools to more "lambda calc" topics (discrete math > most people call it). I was a player, a lobbyist, in > those days. But in practice, there's still the > artificial divide between math and computer science. > > I find the pandemic environment has been helpful > in breaking down that divide, as to use Zoom at all > means having access to a laptop. Math teachers > trying to get by on Texas Instruments don't have the > same reach and/or clout as they used to, in this > cyber-environment. > > Kirby > PS: have you seen the new TI calculator that > includes Python? > > https://education.ti.com/en/products/calculators/graphing-calculators/ti-84-plus-ce-python > Any thoughts? > > > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list -- edu-sig@python.org > To unsubscribe send an email to edu-sig-le...@python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/edu-sig.python.org/ > Member address: calcp...@gmail.com >
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