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Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us: A Liberal Arts Approach to Engaging Middle and High School Teachers with Computer Science Students
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Cho, Samuel Pauca, Paul Johnson, Denise James, Yu'Vonne |
| Copyright Year | 2014 |
| Abstract | Recruiting talented college students remains a significant problem because of difficulties relating and connecting their knowledge with wider audiences. We implemented over the past two years Google Computer Science for High School (CS4HS) workshops with computer science students, faculty, and middle and high school teachers. Computer science students developed hands-on programming lessons using Scratch Programming and App Inventor, presented these lessons during most of the sessions, and participated in a panel discussion about computer science at the middle and high school levels. We evaluated the effectiveness of our workshops through teacher and student surveys. In the short term, students highly valued the opportunity to enrich their education and found our efforts to be socially meaningful. In the long term, our goal is to create a feedback loop where students train teachers in computational thinking, thereby helping them in turn mentor future computer science students. Introduction According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “among all occupations in all fields of science and engineering, computer science occupations are projected to account for nearly 60% of all job growth between now and 2018” (Lacey & Wright, 2009). However, the 2010 Computing Research Association (CRA) Taulbee Survey of Ph.D. granting universities states that the percentage of Black and Hispanic computer science Bachelors degree recipients is 3-fold less than their representation in the U.S. population. Women of all ethnic groups are very significantly underrepresented at only 11% (Zweben & Bizot, Betsy, 2012). While causes for these disparities are debated Beyer, Rynes, Perrault, Hay, & Haller, 2003; Katz, Allbritton, Aronis, Wilson, & Soffa, 2006), one may be a lack of mentors and role models to encourage these students early in their learning. Since Wing's seminal papers on computational thinking (Wing, 2006, 2008), many approaches have applied that framework to new studies and workshops. The most obvious opportunities are in math and science courses, but Lu and Fletcher argue that scholars in the social sciences and humanities are discovering that computing processes can advance their disciplines too (Lu & Fletcher, 2009). Settle et al. suggest that modifying the K-12 curriculum to include a stronger emphasis on computational thinking will make a bigger impact on computational competency (Settle et al., 2012). |
| Starting Page | 79 |
| Ending Page | 86 |
| Page Count | 8 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 2014 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://users.wfu.edu/choss/docs/papers/27.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
