Summer Workshop:
     Mathematical Foundations for Computer Science in the High School
                UNL campus                July 24-28, 2000

The second of a series of workshops is being planned for this summer for high
school teachers dealing with the high school computer science curriculum.
The focus this summer is on the mathematics that students will need to excel
when they enter UNL's Computer Science & Engineering Department.

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Issues to be covered:

What is the connection between mathematics and computer science?
Is the mathematics now being taught in high schools the best mix for
   computer science students?
What is "problem solving" and how can it be taught?
What are the "discrete" mathematics?
Teaching discrete mathematics at the high school level:
      Keeping students motivated and involved
      Active learning techniques
      Computer simulations
      Applications to computer science
      Resource materials
      Organizing units and courses
      Continuing support
What high school experiences will best serve students wanting to major
   in computer science and engineering?

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Examples of what we will do:

Use the Scheme programming language with a special package to study
functions, relations, and graph theory.

Use the Prolog programming language to study logic and set theory.

Use the Haskell programming language to study induction.

Use Excel to study number representation and number theory.

Have students "act out" digital logic behavior.
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Costs and benefits:

All costs for the workshop are paid, including room for those coming
from out of town.  There is an option of one hour credit in computer
science that would be the participants cost.  There will be at least
one book, software, and course materials supplied.  Most of the
software used in the workshop is freely available over the Web and
requires little in the way of hardware resources.  Continuing support
will be offered.

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Comments from last year's participants:

I was surprised at the amount of theory and depth of mathematics that is
involved with computer science.

I also hope to make our math department aware of some of the math topics
used.

It is important for me to know that these math topics are so important in
computer science.  I will try to incorporate more of the math in my 
curriculum.  It also is important to be able to relay the importance of
these topics to our math department.

I have come to see that many other topics are as important in providing
a foundation for students to build as a computer language.

I found this [discrete mathematics topics] to be quite valuable as we do
offer a discrete mathematics course.  My job will be to convince the
current teacher to spend more time with the above topics.

I'm afraid math is a weakness for me - that is why I didn't go very far
with computers as an undergraduate.

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Quote in a recent report from a workshop at Bowdoin College:

The following topics are likely to be used in the first three courses
for CS majors:  logical reasoning, functions, relations, sets,
mathematical induction, combinatorics, finite probability, asymptotic
notation, recurrence/difference equations, graphs, trees, and number
systems.  Ultimately, calculus, linear algebra, and statistics topics
are also needed, but NONE EARLIER THAN DISCRETE MATHEMATICS.