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A “GRAND TOUR” OF COMPUTER SCIENCE: RE-DESIGNING CS1 FOR BREADTH AND RETENTION Natalie Linnell, Nicholas Tran, Carol Gittens: Santa Clara University
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Goals of re-design Make course function better as an elective Improve retention, esp. women and underrepresented minorities Give majors an idea of what CS is as a field Intro to Computer Science, instead of Intro to Programming CS 1 (F11- S14) CS 2 (F08- S14) % of males completing the course 72%79% % of females completing the course 69%72% Timeframe% women in CS 1 (#offerings) %women in CS 2 (#offerings) %women who finish CS major F11-S1432% (13)20% (5)18% F08-S14NR18% (8)13%
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Key Design Elements Separate problem solving and syntax Focus on breadth
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Focus on breadth – “Grand tour” “Introduction to CS,” not “Introduction to Programming” Applied examples in lecture and lab Physics, math, biology, psychology Lots of collaborative active learning Shown to improve retention of women “Big Ideas” in Computer Science Brief intros to: the Internet, Databases, Hardware Societal issues, with 2 papers Privacy, History of CS, HCI, Hacking Fulfills Science, Technology, and Society Core requirement
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Separate problem solving and syntax Introduced new, 100-minute lab Lab is only place C++ is used, pseudocode only in lecture Pair programming, assigned pairs in lab Lab is flipped Possibility of labs in different languages This grant allowed us to buy laptops, so we could have lab in a regular classroom No indication of increased student time commitment
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Data gathering Programming problems Attitudes to CS Metacognition Early days, but so far, indications of improved retention TermTotal enrolle d Answer ed 7/7 on Q1 Answer ed 5- 7/7 on Q1 Took at least CS2 DFWMath or Physics majors W1525 (18 took survey) 9 (50% of surveye d 36% overall) 13 (72% of surveye d 52% overall) 3 (12%) 1 (4%) W1437 10 (27%) 11 (30%) 6 (16%) W1330 10 (33%) 8 (27%) 3 (10%)
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Next steps Carry ideas into CS2 Multiple labs for CS1
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Thanks! Natalie Linnell: nlinnell@scu.edunlinnell@scu.edu Nicholas Tran: ntran@scu.eduntran@scu.edu Carol Gittens: cgittens@scu.educgittens@scu.edu
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