Computer Science | Grinnell College

Folks returning from last week's SIGCSE 2018 will be discussing experiences at the conference. This was a technical symposium for the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The reading for this week is to browse the SIGCSE 2018 website. In particular, you can browse the full schedule to get a sense of what the conference covered. If a particular session seems interesting to you, feel free to mention it on Tuesday and we can see if one of our panelist also visited that session and can share their thoughts!

Computer science table (CS Table) is a weekly meeting of Grinnell College community members (students, faculty, staff, etc.) interested in discussing topics related to computing and computer science. CS Table meets Tuesdays from 12:00–12:45pm in JRC 224A (inside the Marketplace). Contact the CS faculty for the weekly reading. Students on meal plans, faculty, and staff are expected to cover the cost of their meals. Visitors to the College and students not on meal plans can charge their meals to the department (sign in at the Marketplace front desk).

As a service to the SIGCSE community, we are attempting to provide a list of all the positions posted to the SIGCSE-members mailing list. If you notice one missing or would like details updated, email Samuel Rebelsky.

A variety of resources created by Grinnell CS faculty and students in support of SIGCSE.

Henry Walker received the SIGCSE 2013 Award for Lifetime Service:

For dedication to the computing education community, including within SIGCSE and APCS, development of curricula and pedagogy, authoring articles and textbooks, creation and support of conference submission software, mentoring of students and faculty, and consulting with departments to advance excellence in computing education. — https://sigcse.org/sigcse/programs/awards/lifetime

On Thursday, February 28, Professors Sam Rebelsky, Janet Davis, and Jerod Weinman will discuss the rationale for using media scripting in our introductory computer science course:

Grinnell's CSC 151 draws upon concepts of media computation to motivate students and to provide more visual feedback that helps students better understand the algorithms they write. At the same time, CSC 151 encourages students to think about computing (and image making) in multiple ways. In this talk, a preview of a talk we will give at the SIGCSE Symposium on Computer Science Education, we discuss the inception of the course, what we see as key design points of the course, and the ways in which we have assessed the efficacy of the course. Since the introduction of this new version of 151, we have seen significant increases in enrollment and diversity. Assessments suggest that the course helps students develop deep knowledge that is atypical of an introductory course and also builds confidence.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, “Building knowledge and confidence with mediascripting: a successful interdisciplinary approach to CS1,” will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!