Providing intellectual focus to CS1/CS2

First-year computer science students need to see clearly that computer science as a discipline has an important intellectual role to play and that it offers deep philosophical questions, much like the other hard sciences and mathematics; that CS is not “just programming”. An appropriate intellectual focus for CS1/CS2 can be built on the foundations of systems thinking and mathematical modeling, as these principles are manifested in a component-based software paradigm. We outline some of the main technical features of this approach to CS1/CS2 and report preliminary observations from our experience with it.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: SIGCSE
• Authors: Timothy J. Long, Bruce W. Weide, Paolo Bucci, David S. Gibson, Joseph E. Hollingsworth, Murali Sitaraman, Stephen H. Edwards
• Keywords: Appropriate Intellectual Focus, Deep Philosophical Questions, Education, Important Intellectual Role, SIGCSE 1998