The following is a categorized list of all of the curriculum modules that we have brainstormed in the past. Feel free to pick a subset of these to create a workshop appropriate to your own audience. Please also refer to the past workshop resources linked from under the Resources link above.
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CS Unplugged Introduce participants to the CS Unplugged material: give an overview of the Unplugged topics, walk them through one or more of the modules, and dicuss ways to integrate the concepts into an AP CS curriculum. |
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Food For Thought: Sorting Pancakes Learn how to put sorting in terms of stacks of pancakes! |
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Food For Thought: Cutting Cake Learn how to fairly divide a cake N ways without measuring! |
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Circuits Lab Introduce participants to the basics of circuits and circuit logic. Let them create their own circuits and experiment. |
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CS Through Brainteasers Give participants a taste of logical reasoning through the use of brainteasers. Many of these brainteasers are actual interview questions used by Microsoft to hire software developers! |
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Kinesthetic Learning of CS Demonstrate CS principles in the classroom while getting up and moving! This uses Steve Wolfman's material. |
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Squeak Give participants an overview of Alan Kay's Smalltalk programming environment. |
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Computational Thinking Introduce the notion of computational thinking: that computer science gives us a way of approaching problems far beyond computer problems, and that everyone will benefit from the ability to approach problems this way. Jeannette Wing's material. |
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Cryptography Made Easy Gives an overview of the history of cryptography and its basic principles. Emphasizes the connection between cryptography techniques and mathematics. |
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CS in the Economy Pinpoint a few examples of computer science at work in the economy. For certain areas (e.g. Seattle) this can be done at a local level (e.g. Microsoft, Amazon, etc.) Show how CS influences the economy and by consequence local landscapes. |
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CS at _______ Show participants what is involved in the undergraduate CS curriculumm at your school, so they can give an informed view to their own students. Discuss the types of things that your institution's undergraduates have gone on to do. |
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Robotics in the Classroom Discuss various small-scale educational robotics packages and give an overview of current robotics research. |
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Introduction To Programming Gives a basic introduction to programming. Might use python, Dr. Java, Alice, etc. Targeted at those who have never programmed before. |
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Teaching Programming Discusses how to effectively teach programming to students. Might cover such topics as recursion or inheritance with specific lesson ideas. Might also discuss how to create effective and accessible programming assigments. |
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Cross-Disciplinary Breakout Teachers break out by subject area (biology, chemistry, etc.) and discuss ways to demonstrate to their students the overlap between their own subject and computer science |
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Wrapup Breakout Near the end of the workshop, teachers break out into small groups to discuss concrete ways of integrating into their classrooms the things they have learned in the workshop (both concrete CS ideas and broader issues about accessibility, gender equity, etc.) |
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Book Discussion Breakout This module requires that participants read a specified book prior to attending the workshop (a requirement that is good for fulfilling "outside-of-the-classroom" hours often required to get a course certified for University credit). Participants can all be asked to read the same book, or can choose from a small list, in which case the breakout should be done by choice of book. Possible books: Unlocking the Clubhouse (Margolis/Fisher), The Search (Battelle), The Turing Omnibus (Dewdney), I'm a Strange Loop (Hofstadter). |
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Careers Panel 3-5 "real world" computer scientists discuss their jobs: how they use computer science, what a typical day looks like, etc. The goal is to demonstrate that CS is used all over, and involves much more than programming. |
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Mythbusters Dispel various myths surrouding computer science: that it is nerdy, that it is just programming, that all of its jobs are being outsourced, that it requires the sacrifice of fun/family, etc. |
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Broadening Computer Science Participation Discuss the issues that affect the levels of participation seen by various groups in computer science (women, minorities). Discuss efforts to equalize the levels of interest in and access to CS across these groups, from the k-12 level and up. |
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