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 (2001) the focus is on the
use of free language compilers/interpreters and related tools in the
teaching of computer science concepts.

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Summer 2000 Workshop Draws High School Mathematics Teachers to
Computer Science Education


Nine high school mathematics and computer science teachers spent a
week of their summer at UNL learning how to prepare their students
for the computer science major.  The event drawing them from large
and small schools across the state was a workshop titled "Mathematical
Foundations for Computer Science in the High School."  This is the
second year that Dr. Charles Riedesel, Chief Undergraduate Advisor
and Senior Lecturer of the Computer Science & Engineering Department,
has conducted a workshop dealing with the coordination of computer
science education between the University and Nebraska high schools.
A special thanks go to the Nebraska Mathemetics Science Initiative
for covering the cost of room, meals, books, and supplies.

Among the topics discussed were the beginning computer science and
mathematics courses at UNL including the breadth of the newest
introductory course, the role of mathematics (and in particular
discrete mathematics) in computer science education, the many choices
of programming languages, the influence (or lack thereof) of AP
courses on computer science teaching, and the gender gap (less than
12% of UNL computer science majors are women).  Substantial effort 
was devoted to the technical details of what to teach and how to
present it.

Of special interest was the issue of how to incorporate the knowledge
gained at the workshop into the local high school curriculum.
Some schools have the flexibility to institute full-fledged computer
science programs, but most are limited to making small adjustments in 
special topics courses or adding emphasis to mathematics courses.
Most of the topics discussed at the workshop can be implemented with
little or no cost other than materials.  Even in programming courses,
many useful languages can be obtained for free over the Internet and
installed on relatively antiquated machines.  This is made possible
through government and private funding of educational software 
development from a variety of sources, and by redirecting the
educational goals from those that require high cost professional
development tools to goals that involve building solid mathematical,
logical, and problem solving foundations where algorithm development
and analysis are seen as more valuable than learning the syntax of the
latest language.

Some of the participants elected to receive academic credit through their
involvement and the followup development of curricular plans and materials.
The week ended with an informal lunch with representatives from the
Computer Science Department, the Teacher's College, and the Mathematics
Department.  Plans are underway for a third workshop next summer,
tentatively planned to deal with the educational use of programming
languages and environments.
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Public-Domain Languages for Teaching Computer Science in the High School
June 11-15, 2001 on UNL Campus


Is teaching programming with C++ the best way to introduce 
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 students the
greatest advantage when they continue on into computer science or
computer engineering at UNL?

UNL is welcoming High school and community college teachers from
Nebraska to participate in a workshop 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.

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.