CS 501 A New Course Computer Science Principles

CS 501: A New Course… Computer Science Principles Tim Andersen Boise State University, Boise © Tim Andersen 2004

Introductions … �Instructor: Tim Andersen �Teaching Assistants: Audrey and Sarah �Teaching Collaborator: Dr. Amit Jain �… and you? 9/9/2020 2

CS 501: Computer Science Principles � A new course, patterned after the AP CSP course. �AP CSP supported by NSF and College Board We will have pre- and post-surveys Supported by our CS 10 K grant Uh, I’ve never taught this course before … 9/9/2020 3

Approach �The objective of this course is to teach: Computational Principles – “bits can represent all information” – that everyone should know Computational Thinking – thinking approaches you can use to solve (your) problems with computers �If you were thinking this class will be … Trivial, forget it: We will learn stuff and think in ways you probably haven’t before Difficult, forget it: This is patterned after a high school class Fun and interesting: Perfect … that’s what it will 9/9/2020 be 4

A Brief Word About Programming �Some people panic at the mention of the word programming … worrying it would cause them to become social outcasts, nerdy, … �Programming’s a career; it takes years to learn; it pays really well; normal people do it, too �We’ll learn some programming in this class as part of teaching computational thinking You won’t be a programmer (or nerd) at the end You will still be normal as you are today You will, I hope, also think differently as a result 9/9/2020 5

Announcements �What you need to do today Linux warmup assignment 9/9/2020 6