Public-Domain Languages for Teaching Computer Science in the High School

A Workshop for High School and Community College Teachers of
            Mathematics and Computer Science

                 June 11-14 on UNL Campus


Is teaching programming with C++ the best way to introduce your
students to computer science?  What about the approaching switch
to Java?  Are the software and hardware costs becoming excessive?
Is remaining with Basic, including Visual Basic, acceptable?  Are
there aspects of computer science that are being missed?  What can
be done about the gender gap?  What will give your students the
greatest advantage when they continue on into computer science or
computer engineering in college?

UNL welcomes High school and community college teachers from
Nebraska to participate in a workshop early this summer at which
these questions will be answered, practical options presented,
and continuing assistance be made available.  There is a treasure
trove of lesser known programming languages and supporting materials
that is free, easy on the computer hardware support, and yet more
useful than traditional languages for teaching the important
concepts of computer science.  Use of these programming languages
is the focus of the workshop.

A sample of the languages and tools that will be examined is Forth
(great for teaching about stacks and postfix notation), Lisp and
its dialect Scheme (extremely simple syntax, functional programming
paradigm, great for teaching about recursion),  TeachScheme (a
comprehensive educational support system utilizing Scheme), Prolog
(logic programming paradigm, great for teaching about forms of logic,
logic resolution, and recursion), BlueJ (a GUI Java environment
ideal for teaching class structures and object orientation).

Only a small part of the time will be devoted to studying these
languages with their syntax.  Most of the time will be available
to examining how the breadth of computer science can be presented
using these languages as tools.  This breadth includes data
representation, digital logic, computer organization, networks,
algorithms, language structures, data structures, operating systems,
computational theory, and much more.

Previous Workshops of the Series:

The Computer Science & Engineering Department at UNL is seeking to
expand its service to Nebraska high schools with a series of summer
workshops.  The theme of these workshops is how computer science
can best be taught at the entry level, considering pedagogy, resource
constraints, gender imbalance, curriculum flexibility, perceptions
of the subject, and ease of preparation.  The focus of previous
workshops was balanced coverage of the breadth of computer science
and the role of mathematics, in particular discrete mathematics in
computer computer science.

This summer's workshop will be held the week of June 11-15.  Most
costs including motel (for those coming from a distance), meals, and
materials are covered by a grant from the Nebraska Math & Science
Initiative.  There will be an option to receive education credit
(for the additional cost of tuition.)  Space is limited to 30
participants.