Embedding a CS

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Embedding a CS E Curriculum

• Finding Engineers in your Colleagues Classrooms
• Michael Chabin
• The Holton-Arms School

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The Problem

• The number of women receiving Bachelors degrees
  in computer science peaked at about 38 in the
  early 1990s.
• Only 9 of professional engineers and 20 of
  engineering undergraduates are women.

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The Holton-Arms School

• School for Girls Founded 1901
• 660 students grades 3 - 12
• Class of 2004 (75 students)
• 2 National Merit Scholars (9 finalists, and 31
  commended)
• SAT-1 means Verbal 704, Math 692
• 4 Admitted to Princeton

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• The Holton school motto is Inveniam viam aut
  faciam. ( I will find a way or make one.)
• With a motto like that, and students like ours,
  we should be producing engineers!

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Some Reasons Girls Dont Explore CSE

• They dont know what Computer Scientists and
  Engineers do (few people do).
• Bioengineering
• Adaptive Optics
• Nano-scale machines

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• Problem-solving activities like Legos, HO trains,
  race cars, model rockets, and even computer
  programming are less available to girls for
  social reasons. (This is mitigated in a girls
  school.)

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• Despite our best efforts schools still tend to
  teach by telling rather than allowing students
  to create genuinely original solutions - perhaps
  especially in the critical middle-school years
  and earlier.

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• There are few, if any, convincing role models.

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• Technical opportunities in K-12 tend to be
  limited by what classroom teachers know.

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Goals

• Ensure that every girl understands technology
  well enough to exploit it as students and,
  eventually, to govern it as voters.
• Ensure that any girl who has an interest in
  engineering discovers it, and having discovered
  it, goes to college prepared to pursue it.

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Assets

• Excellent Students
• Parents in strategic locations (NIH, AAAS, U of
  MD Engineering etc.)
• A Head of School who is committed to an
  engineering program.
• Adequate funding

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Challenges

• Faculty and students are already over subscribed.
  
• No new required courses,
• Cannot add to student workload,
• Cannot require teachers to master new technology.

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Current Offerings

• An introduction to Object-oriented Programming
  with Java.
• AP Java (two semesters).

In terms of encouraging girls to consider CSE
majors, results have been disappointing. Last
year five of Holtons 660 students took AP Java.
One of those decided her interest in Computer
Science was misplaced. Too much vocabulary,
she complained.
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• So, with apologies to the College Board . . .

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• . . . we expect to abandon AP Java.

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Parts of AP Java will be obsolete by the time our
students graduate from college. Sun Microsystems
may not survive that long. Can Java survive
alone? Is it really the best of all possible
languages? It is, after all, the third AP
language in 11 years. The most important
concepts of programming can be learned in a
variety of languages - often more efficiently
than in AP Java.
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AP Java places too much emphasis on rote learning
(many texts include vocabulary lists).
Expertise is the ability to learn what one
needs to solve a problem. Our students have to
make effective use of tools they havent been
introduced to. - Swapping disk drives - Taking
a drill apart and putting it back together -
Figure out what Fireworks is on their own
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AP Java conveys too much material, sacrificing
key concepts and the time required to develop
them. We are delighted to sacrifice
completeness for depth.
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The key element in all of engineering is play,
something for which there is no time in the AP
curriculum.We hope to build a CSE curriculum
in which play is a key component.
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AP Java is focused on a test.We hope to focus
on helping students solve problems.
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AP Java is about programming.There is much more
to Computer Science Engineering than
programming. There are languages besides Java.
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AP Java is a year-long course. We hope to make
the engineers attitude a Holton cultural value.
We need to provide children with regular
challenges from grades 3 through 12.
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Traditional teaching structures exclude girls
from CSE.We hope to give our students direct
experience with real problems and partner them
with scientists, graduate students, and other
accomplished women.
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We hope to construct a CSE curriculum that Is
less vulnerable to obsolescence Emphasizes
learning to learn Permits freedom for in-depth
exploration Embodies engineering-as-productive-p
lay Helps students solve real problems Involves
students from grades 3-12 Provides role
models The question is . . . How?
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We propose to replace the the AP with . . . .
. . the Digital Portfolio.
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Imagine that each year, every student converts
her best work to digital format.
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Essays and short-stories are converted to
HTMLArt is scannedSculpture and ceramics are
photographed with a digital camera - perhaps in
VR 3D.
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PowerPoints from class would be includedSo
would computer programs and spreadsheetsDigital
images and video could record everything from
science experiments to class trips.
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Imagine that highlights from concert recordings
are includedVideos from sporting events,
speeches, and performancesEven guest-shot
videos from friends.
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It would be a durable archive of a students
year.It would be a profoundly effective way to
communicate the student experience to
parents.It would be a treasure for grandparents.
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It would also be a significant technical
achievement for the student who created it.
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Most important, from a CSE perspective, it would
be a vehicle for implementing an embedded or
virtual CSE curriculum.
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Each year, students will be required to include
specific kinds of artifacts.
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We might require a robot . . , . . . but no
class in robotics.Students who are working on a
project can arrange for individual or group help
directly with CSE faculty - or from each other.
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The important notion is this it is up to the
students to arrange for the help they need. They
can get it from CSE faculty, from parents, or
from each other.
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Think of it as just in time education.
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We are still working on the specific
grade-by-grade requirements. The nice thing is
we dont have to get it right the first time.
Nothing is easier to change than a list of
requirements.
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Third Grade A Squeakland ProgramFourth grade
Lego Movies, digital images Fifth Grade
PowerPoint, Go-cart, Sixth Grade Lego Robot,
video interviewSeventh Grade Flash
animationEighth Grade Flash with ActionScript
Java - Scientific formulae Java - Sum 1 to
1000000Ninth Grade Stella - Predator-prey
ArcGis- Poverty map
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Tenth graders might build a simple digital
control system, produce reasonably sophisticated
Flash Movies, be responsible for the videos of
school plays and recordings of school concerts.
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Juniors and seniors might focus on mastering
skills to qualify for a summer internship IRAF
- astrophysics (1 already) GIS - epidemiology,
geophysics, etc. Stella - decision support
Maya - 3D modeling Flash - Museum kiosksTo
help with such complex projects, we hope to
recruit experts, ideally women who are graduate
students in a related discipline.
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Unlike other elements of the curriculum, these
are dynamic. They can be changed in response
to Student interest Changing
technology Current themes, like elections or
weather Special opportunities
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Once a particular competence is required for the
Digital Portfolio teachers can make assignments
that use that particular skill.If seventh
graders are required to produce a Flash animation
then any teacher from grade 7 up can assign one,
even if the teacher has no experience with Flash
and no intention of getting it.
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Digital Portfolio offers Parents a better idea
of the school experience Students a broader
audience experience with a variety of
tools Teachers the ability to assign technology
they havent mastered. freedom from
having to teach technical skills. The
School a profoundly flexible CSE and
technology curriculum a visible archive of
excellence
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Why not Digital Portfolios and AP Java?
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Because people know what they are, APs tend to
co-opt the curriculum. Parents and students
alike tend to think of them as a pinnacle of High
School academics.In fact, they are not.The
critical accomplishments of a students K-12
career are highly individual. Digital Portfolios
can capture that in a way that APs never will.
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Students can still take the AP. Our students
regularly get 5s on the AP English exam and we
have no AP English.
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Well keep three CSE electives, but theyll
be - Introduction to Object Oriented
Programming will be half Flash and half
digital electronics - One semester Scientific
Programming - One semester half Stella and GIS
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For now, however, our focus will remain on
Digital Portfolios as the best way to develop
CSE interest and competence in our students, and
the best way to demonstrate student achievements
to parents and colleges.
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You should know, though, this is a work in
progress. Much will change before we are
finished.
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