On Jul 6, 2007, at 2:29 PM, Andre Roberge wrote: > Does anyone on this list (other than Vern) who has taught high school > kids an intro to programming for just a few weeks can answer Andy's > question?
I'm not a teacher, but perhaps you'll indulge a slight tangent. I have taught intro CS to 8th graders for a year in the late 90s, and more recently, some pretty hardcore CS during a 10-day course (http:// www.astro.hr/s3/2005/project4.php) for advanced high schoolers who didn't come in with a strong programming background. The former course used BASIC and a couple of more obscure languages, and the latter used a specialized dialect of C. The two environments were almost incomparable, but I did walk away with one shared observation both times: trying to explain difficult CS concepts to kids without a proper math background is next to impossible. Both times, I eventually reverted to teaching the missing math before diving into the CS, and even during the CS bits liberally jumped into mathematical analogies to explain various concepts and approaches. Some of my friends expressed unease with my happiness (comfort, really) to use mathematics as a tool for teaching CS, citing math's awful reputation as something that would get in the way. Unfortunately, there's a perverse and pervasive myth today that CS *isn't* math. Incoming CS freshmen at the better universities are quickly disillusioned about this; a non-trivial proportion of them picked CS as a major since they were "pretty good with computers in high school". For these folks, algorithms and Lisp tend to cause convulsive culture shock, and they often move to less demanding majors. Some schools have responded by introducing software engineering as a separate course of study. Bottom line: terminology matters. I think it's impossible to teach CS to kids who are afraid of math. Teaching *programming* is something else entirely. I'd submit that what Andy can expect from his students depends largely on which of the two he's trying to teach. Cheers, -- Ivan Krstić <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | GPG: 0x147C722D _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
