[Edu-sig] Significant drop in CS interest in high schools

[Lloyd Hugh Allen]

I'm a math teacher who uses python for personal purposes, but the cs
teacher in my building told me that the higher level cs ab ap was axed
for this year - that could contribute to lower enrollment. Apparently
ap italian was also on the chopping block until the gov't of italy
ponied up....if only there were a wealthy benefactor for cs...

On 2009-08-28, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 10:11 PM, Helene Martin<lognaturel at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Our user group PPUG has kept bringing up Sage (the free Python
>>> product) and the Sage community as one to get work with.  But our
>>> ranks include mostly family guys or up and coming private sector,
>>> precious few in the teaching professions.
>>>
>>> As you say, there's a big cultural disconnect between what goes on in
>>> the classroom and what goes on in a Python user group -- and that's
>>> wrong, why waste so much time on a wild goose chase (chasing the
>>> specter of maths gone by).
>>
>> Collaboration is always expensive so sometimes it just feels easier to
>> pursue an idea in isolation.  I'm definitely guilty of that myself.
>>
>
> And sometimes that's a good thing, as that's what artists call
> artistic control e.g. none of the great poems were written by
> committee (I might be challenged on that, but it sounds right to say).
>  You need that unifying vision.
>
> But then I think you need exposure to other artists to keep it fresh
> and relevant.
>
> So probably a mix of collaboration and solo work is the best in many
> cases.  Observing Portland's music scene, I'm seeing much to confirm
> this.
>
>> I'm aware of Sage but I don't think I'll be using it, at least for
>> this first year.  It sounds like I'm taking a decidedly less
>> mathematical approach to teaching Python than you and probably a lot
>> of people would prefer.  In my mind, the goal initially is to get
>> students -- and not just the AP kids -- curious enough to use
>> programming as a way to express themselves and dare to try things they
>> don't know will work.  For a lot of kids, math is not going to be the
>> hook but interface design, data visualizations, automated music
>> generation and other such things might be.  I'd like for them to think
>> of Python (or JavaScript or Processing or Java) as another great tool
>> they can use to pursue whatever goals they have.
>>
>> There's a delicate balance to strike between academic content and a
>> good hook, though.  It remains to be seen whether I can strike it
>> properly.
>>
>
> Yes, I'm all for hooks, proving up front that this stuff is going to kick
> ass.
>
> My classes have tended to be purely elective, outside regular school,
> on Saturdays, for a fee, and not for academic credit (except that
> around here, Saturday Academy certificates are valued, a real asset on
> college admissions forms, plus there's the internship program).
>
> So I've had to work extra hard to make my classes exciting.  That's
> meant showing some cartoons and then talking about ray tracing as a
> way to make frames of film (render farms give us more frames at a
> time).  They watch short movies like 'Warriors of the Web' and 'Code
> Guardian' as specimens, then turn to a simpler workbench where we use
> Python with POV-Ray.
>
> We also talk about lore quite a bit i.e. what is the history of open
> source, where did Linux come from, who is Richard Stallman, what is
> GNU?  I've been known to screen excerpts from 'Revolution OS' which
> starts from the birth of Linux through the first dot com boom, so
> dated, but still interesting.
>
> This more math-centric approach I'm talking up on this list
> (edu-sig at python.org) is more in the storyboard phase i.e. it's an
> attempt to break away from the pattern of an elective subject that
> needs to rely on just word of mouth.
>
> We're hoping to shift more of the computer stuff into the math domain
> because that's where you get the required credits.
>
> If our digital math track includes enough calculus (among other
> things), it could probably completely replace that analog math track
> though all four years of high school.
>
> Once kids have a test of learning math in conjunction with ray
> tracing, making colorful polyhedra spin in a VRML browser, they don't
> easily go back to the old formats.
>
>>> It's the same scene of being surrounded by high tech, kids full of
>>> hope, and schools in the dark ages.
>>>
>>> Our Hillsboro Police Department (next to Intel) was really tired of
>>> getting asked to bust kids chops for software piracy, ripping off
>>> music (this was Napster's golden year) and when they found about about
>>> FOSS they went apeshit, going "why do we have to play the mean guy
>>> enforcer when we could be having fun watching these kids develop
>>> cyberspace skills and not end up career criminals?"
>>>
>>> So HPD opened a Linux Lab right there in West Precinct (hand-me-down
>>> Compaqs running Red Hat).
>>>
>>> Me 'n Jerritt (with linuxfund.org back then) were two of the teachers,
>>> contracted through saturdayacademy.org.
>>>
>>> But guess what:  teenagers don't really think of a police station as
>>> being congenial to their way of life, so the marketing was a real up
>>> hill battle.
>>>
>>> Also the premise was born or desperation:  schools so not doing their
>>> jobs that the police needed to step in as digital math teachers, when
>>> they're supposed to be running forensics labs.  Like how twisted is
>>> that?  George Heuston, the brains behind this project, along with his
>>> chief, was unusually ahead of the pack in his thinking (quite a
>>> resume, FBI, NORAD... I don't know the half of it I'm sure).
>>
>> This is a really interesting anecdote.  It's really disappointing to
>> think that the police force would be more aware of the need for
>> technology education than schools!  I wonder whether I could get a
>> digital forensics expert to talk about his/her work.  I bet that would
>> be interesting to kids.
>>
>
> We have these Science Pubs around Portland, sponsored by the science
> museum and the leading brew pub chain.
>
> The crime lab police woman was tremendously popular, in part because
> there are so many forensics shows on TV these days.
>
> http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/06/big-science.html
>
> George Heuston did more digital forensics i.e. analyzed hard drives
> recovered from crime scenes.  I think these would be dynamite speakers
> as well, in a science pub or even math pub context.
>
>>> Garfield High in Seattle?  Where my mom went as a kid?  And Jimi Hendrix?
>>
>> The one and only!
>>
>
> Cool!
>
> Glad to be on your Ning thing, thanks for inviting me!
>
> Kirby
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