K-12 Computing Education Seminar

Facilitator: Allison Obourn
Meetings: Tuesdays 1:30 - 3:00pm

Syllabus | Volunteer Norms | Project Ideas

Children love computers and now use them in all aspects of their lives. At the same time, the shortage of skilled computer scientists is dire enough for DARPA to fund outreach initiatives. In this seminar, we explore challenges and opportunities related to computing education for pre-collegial students. Our primary goal is to become more effective advocates and supporters of computing education in K-12. We discuss relevant education policy, teaching strategies and existing endeavors while spending time working with K-12 students in the Seattle area.

Date	Topics	Assignments
October 6th	Who are we? What were our K-12 experiences like? What do we want to get out of this seminar? How has computing education been discussed in the media lately?
October 13th	What is computational thinking? Why is 'computational thinking' currently favored over 'computer science' to describe K-12 programs? What should K-12 students learn about computing? Where does computing fit into the K-12 curriculum?	Fill out project preference survey by Sunday, October 11th 11pm. Skim pages 6-31 from Running on Empty and skim pages 9-35 from Rebooting the Pathway to Success. Read Computational Thinking and skim Bringing Computational Thinking to K-12
October 20th	What is visual programming? What is the role of programming in K-12 computing? How are teaching programming in K-12 and college different?	What do students learn about programming from game, music video, and storytelling projects? SIGCSE : G : Minding the gap between blocks-based and textbased programming: Evaluating introductory programming tools Explore and play with Scratch, Kodu, Alice or AppInventor
October 27th	What is Computer Science Principles? How are the classes similar and different? How could you test the outcomes	Seven big ideas of CSP Explore CS Principles curricula, code.org, Berkley BJC, UCSD Expeditions through Alice and UW CSE 120.
November 3rd	Why is diversity important in computing? Why are women underrpresented in computing? How can we improve representation of minorities in computing?	Read Broadening Partcipation: The Why and the How, which was written right here in the UW CSE department Find one other article about diversity in Computer Science in the news.
November 10th	Which problems does this program solve? What roles can industry play in addressing K-12 computing education? What challenges does this program face?	Read Fostering Tech Talent in Schools
November 17th	What place do extracurricular activities have in CS education? What are hackathons? Programming competitions?
November 24th	What predicts CS aptitude How can CS knowledge be assessed?	Read The Mystery of "b:=(b=false)" and MasterMind: a predictor of computer programming aptitude
December 1st	What challenges are associated with learning to program? What are some of the things to consider when choosing an introductory programming language?	Read Learnable Programming
December 8th	No reading: end of quarter project presentations!

(baby computer picture from here)