Do High Schools Know What 'Computer Science' Is? 564
theodp writes "The first rule of teaching high school-level Computer Science should be knowing what CS is-and-isn't. Unfortunately, many high schools offering 'Computer Science' really aren't. Using her old California high school as an example, now-a-real-CS-student Carolyn points out that one 'Computer Science' class (C101) touted keyboarding 'speeds in excess of 30 words per minute at 95% accuracy' as a desired outcome, while another (C120) boasted that students will learn to use hyperlinks to link to other sites. While such classes fill a need, she acknowledges, they should not be called Computer Science. What's the harm? 'Encouraging more girls to take computer classes as they are now might have the opposite of the desired effect,' she explains. 'More girls might get the impression that computer science is only advanced application use, which might turn them off to computer science.'"
Computer science... (Score:5, Insightful)
What does being a girl have to do with it? (Score:5, Insightful)
> 'More girls might get the impression that computer science is only advanced application use, which might turn them off to computer science.'
Substitute "students" for "girls" and you've got the actual problem. Thinking that it's only a problem for recruiting women into CS is a big mistake.
Universities don't, why should highschools? (Score:3, Insightful)
In my experience, universities don't know what computer science is so it isn't a surprise that highschools don't. Most universities seem to think that programmers are computer scientists which is approximately like saying architects are civil engineers.
Misleading? (Score:4, Insightful)
But to get on topic, no, they don't. If you aren't teaching programming or theory, you aren't CS. You are just a class about computers. I'm also a tad confused as to why this would "turn girls off" (or boys, or anyone). I suppose it would mislead them, but then what other degree would they expect to cover actual CS/programming? A lot of times students are in the wrong major because they have been mislead by whoever that it is about something that it isn't (psychology, for instance) but I really don't see what else there is, other than perhaps Software Engineering. (I understand this is about high school, I'm looking at the long run for these students) If these schools have AP Comp sci courses, those should set the students straight.
Re:Computer Science == Applied Mathematics (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually, I would say that at its heart Computer Science is Logic (that is, Mathematics), and is therefore actually closer to Logic, or Mathematics.
Re:I wouldn't even consider Programming 101 to be (Score:4, Insightful)
simple answer (Score:4, Insightful)
Do High Schools Know What 'Computer Science' Is?
- No.
Do your employers know?
Re:And high school biology students (Score:5, Insightful)
They are useful skills in much the same way as knowing how to steer a car is a useful skill to an automechanic. They are, of course, important prerequisites, but to me, computer science, even at the high school level, should be much more than "How to use a keyboard 101".
When I took it in high school, we started with some basic theory of how a computer works, and then moved on to Pascal programming to demonstrate those concepts, along with good coding techniques, flowcharting and various other concepts that would, in fact, be valuable to someone looking for a career in computer sciences.
Re:Computer science... (Score:3, Insightful)
High school has to deal with a wide range of talents. From geek to tech school student. My CS class was done on ancient TRS-80s and first taught typing, then BASIC, and a final project to create your own program (anything you wished) of at least 100 lines.
For me and my friends it was a ridiculously-easy course. For most of the other students, they barely passed. I imagine today's CS courses are much the same, dealing with a wide range of students, many of whom will probably never program outside this one class.
Re:What does being a girl have to do with it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Where are the research papers about how to get more men into Nursing? Or men into elementary education? How about Men into being stay at home dads? Men being "Admin Assistants"?
Why does it seem that "gender equality" only a one way street?
If it has Science in the name, it ain't science (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no science in Computer Science. That isn't a bad thing, it just means that it isn't science.
Everything a high school student needs to know about Computer Science can be summed up with one sentence, "Computer Science is a branch of mathematics, so if the prospect of getting a math degree strikes fear into your heart, pick a different field of study.".
I graduated from high school back in 1997. I knew about two dozen kids (all guys, go figure) that were going to college for computer science. One got a degree, the others all switched (mostly to MIS). I tried to warn them, but they didn't believe me.
Re:I wouldn't even consider Programming 101 to be (Score:3, Insightful)
Teaching a kid an IDE is not Computer Science. But the you thought programming was computer science.
Silly monkey.
Re:What does being a girl have to do with it? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:And high school biology students (Score:5, Insightful)
Although I suspect Torvalds, Stallman, Knuth etc. can "fix a computer,"
Actually, this is the biggest misconception of all. I'm currently a PhD candidate in computer science. I know a lot about algorithms, data structures, computational theory, etc, but I don't know how to fix MS Windows 7 when it doesn't do x, y, or z properly (except of course to install *nix instead). Granted, I know how to work the menus and dig through the options better than a lay person, but that doesn't mean I'm intimately versed in how Windows works, nor do I have any interest in learning it.
Computer Science seems to have lost its soul in some sense. At my university, if I approach a professor with any problem that is NPC, they immediately say "that's an Ops Research problem". Working on robotics algorithms? "That's the EE or ME department". It's been a real challenge to build a committee because most CS profs at this school don't think that CS covers anything more than AI and logic theories.
The point that CS needs to be defined is actually quite salient. Developers often complain that CS students can't program. Some CS departments are less concerned with teaching good programming practices and more concerned with teaching theory. Students expect the former and get the latter. Other schools consider CS to be the art of design. They focus on software engineering and often leave out much of the mathematical rigor in the process. Other schools focus on the logical and mathematical underpinnings, but don't teach programming or software engineering. Then there are the schools that teach only programming with very little else in the curriculum. Should CS encompass all of the above, or should it be a subset of those things? Is software development the same thing as computer science, or are they fundamentally different, somewhat overlapping disciplines? How does operations research fit in? What about numerical computation, high performance computing, networking, etc., etc.? The field has become enormously fractured and everyone, including Knuth, Stallman, Torvals, et al. has a different opinion about what it should be.
Re:Computer Science = Algorithm Development (Score:5, Insightful)
You may be able to occasionally get a 4-year CS grad with this skillset, but it will be because they are highly motivated to learn on their own, not because they took courses that (competently) cover this material.
There's no way in hell all this could be taught in the 12 or so classes that a 4-year student has available after the core curriculum classes.
You would be lucky to find someone with the skills you want in someone that has 5 years on the job.
Apparently you live in a different world than me cuz this sure doesn't match my experience - and I've been around long enough to have used punchcards instead of sticky-notes.