CS492/692 - Winter 2006 - Assignment 5

Attracting High School Students to Computer Science

Description

This assignment will be completed in groups of 4, pre-assigned by the instructor and TAs, in an effort to balance out weaker and stronger students.

The task for your group is to come up with a way to portray the field of computer science to high school students, in such a way that they will be interested in taking computer science courses at university and in enrolling in the computer science program at UW.

Break the problem down into the following concrete elements:

1. What is computer science? What is a good way to view the field, in a positive light, that would encourage students to explore it further?
2. Proposal for a curriculum in computer science at UW. Summarize the existing curriculum first and then critique it, offering possible adjustments (e.g. adding new courses, dropping existing courses, altering course content).
3. Discussion of why your proposed curriculum would provide benefits for the students, in view of your perception of what the field of computer science is all about.
4. Proposed mechanisms for advertising the field and the program to high school students.

The primary aim is to have students enrolled as computer science majors. You may also discuss increasing the enrolment in CS minor courses, but do not omit the first topic.

Include a brief introduction and conclusion to your overall document. The written report should be on the order of 2500-3000 words and is due March 9, 2006.

Purpose

There has been a significant decline in enrolment in computer science at the undergraduate level, throughout North America. And yet, all indications are that there will be a need for increasing numbers of computer scientists, both within industry and in academia. The purpose of this assignment is to brainstorm on what you think makes computer science an attractive field of study for students and then to come up with some concrete ideas for how to portray that field, through the curriculum here at UW and through methods for communicating to interested students, in order to possibly reverse the current decline in enrolment.