[Edu-sig] Topics for CS2

[David MacQuigg]

At 09:33 PM 1/22/2009 -0800, Edward Cherlin wrote:
>On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 3:09 PM, David MacQuigg wrote:
>> I'm putting together a list of topics for a proposed course entitled "Programming for Scientists and Engineers".  See the link to CS2 under http://ece.arizona.edu/~edatools/index_classes.htm.  This is intended as a follow-on to an introductory course in either Java or C, so the students will have some exposure to programming, but the Java students won't know machine-level programming, and the C students won't have any OOP.  For the proposed course, we will use the example programs as a way to introduce these topics.
>
>Earth Treasury might be interested in working with you on this, if you
>are willing to have it distributed under a Free license in multiple
>languages.

No problem.

>We are working on teaching Computer Science ideas in an
>age-appropriate manner on the OLPC XO starting in third grade, or if
>possible earlier, using Smalltalk, Turtle Art, Logo, Python, and other
>powerful tools, and continuing through 12th grade at least. We will
>also be using the XO's digital oscilloscope capability (Measure
>Activity) to teach science and engineering.

I could see some of these CS2 programs being useful for high-school students, especially if they have already learned a computer language.  No reason they can't be at the same level in programming as college students in the USA.

>The outline of our project, with the names of our confirmed partners
>and a few prospective partners we are talking with, is at
>http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Creating_textbooks.

I had no idea these little laptops could run Linux.  Cool.

-- Dave