21
Growing Computer Science at VHS
• Course Sequence Change– Enroll students earlier in their high school years– Introduce more students to an introductory course– Minimize prerequisites
• Recruiting– Give students good information on the course– Actively seek capable students with interest
• Enlist External Resources– Formative Assessment– Online Courses to supplement Post-AP learning
AP Computer ScienceSequence Change
Old New
Intro To Computer Science
Honors Computer Science
AP Computer Science
AP Computer Science
Data Structures & Algorithms
Mobile Applications
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Fundamentals of Comp Sci(Semester)
Fundamentals Of Computer Science
Alice
Introduction to Computer ScienceUsing Alice
• Developed by Carnegie-Mellon University, by Randy Pausch (of Last Lecture fame)
• Students are able to write software immediately without learning the syntax of a traditional programming language
• Alice is designed with the same structure as Java, so that students who continue in subsequent courses are well-prepared.
• It appeals to visual learners• It’s free• It’s fun!
AP Computer Science
• College Board’s AP Computer Science A Curriculum - Equivalent of first semester college course in Computer Programming
• Students learn Object-Oriented Programming using the Java programming language
• By using Java and Eclipse, students gain experience with industry-standard tools
• Problem-Solving • AP Exam – Required by School Policy
Developing Software in AP Comp Sci
Computer Science at VHS
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-160
20
40
60
80
100
120
Pre-AP Enrollment AP Enrollment Post-AP Enrollment
2013 NJ High Schools – Top 10 AP Participation (% of Junior/Seniors)
School Year ParticipationVERONA HIGH SCHOOL 2013 10.0%
GLEN RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL 2013 9.1%
BERGEN COUNTY ACADEMIES 2013 9.1%
WEST WINDSOR-PLAINSBORO HIGH SCHOOL NORTH 2013 8.0%
JONATHAN DAYTON HIGH SCHOOL 2013 6.9%
DR RONALD MCNAIR HIGH SCHOOL 2013 5.7%
PALISADES PARK JR-SR HIGH SCHOOL 2013 5.4%
POINT PLEASANT BOROUGH HIGH SCHOOL 2013 5.1%
WARREN HILLS REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT 2013 4.9%
SCIENCE PARK HIGH SCHOOL 2013 4.9%
Recruiting
• Give students good information during course selection– What Computer Science Is– What Computer Science Isn’t
• Explain why the world cares• Enlist current and former students to tell their
stories
Girl PowerAP Comp Sci Enrollment
Year Enrollment Boys Girls NJ Girls2006-07 0 0 0 117
2007-08 2 2 0 107
2008-09 4 4 0 1012009-10 5 5 0 1562010-11 11 9 2 1932011-12 12 8 4 2172012-13 30 12 18 2422013-14 48 29 19 3972014-15 39 25 142015-16 41 27 14
AP Exam Takers – 2014
Engli
sh La
ng & Comp
US Hist
ory
Engli
sh Lit
& Comp
Calculus A
B
US Gove
rnmen
t
World
History
Biology
Statisti
cs
Chemist
ry
Human Geo
graphy
Span
ish La
nguag
e
Envi
Sci
Euro
pean Hist
ory
Calculus B
C
Physics
B
Physics
C : Mech
anics
Computer Sc
ience
French
Langu
age
Physics
C: E&M
Music Th
eory
Chinese La
nguag
e0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
400000
450000
500000
AP STEM Exam Takers - 2014
Calculus AB Biology Statistics Chemistry Envi Sci Calculus BC Physics B Physics C : Mechanics
Computer Science
Physics C: E&M
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
AP % Female Exam Takers - 2014
Engli
sh Lit
& Comp
Span
ish La
nguag
e
Engli
sh La
ng & Comp
Biology
Chinese La
nguag
e
Envi
Sci
Human Geo
graphy
World
History
US Hist
ory
Euro
pean Hist
ory
US Gove
rnmen
t
Statisti
cs
Calculus A
B
Chemist
ry
Calculus B
C
Physics
B
Physics
C : Mech
anics
Physics
C: E&M
Computer Sc
ience
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
US AP Exam Takers - 2014
High Demand/Low Supply = $$$
Top 10 College Majors – Starting SalaryCollegiate Employment Research Institute
1. Electrical Engineering2. Computer Engineering3. Mechanical Engineering4. Software Design5. Computer Programming6. Chemical Engineering7. Computer Science8. Civil Engineering9. Mathematics10. Construction Management
It’s 2015All Science Is Computer Science!
Life Sciences• Bioinformatics• Computational Biology• Computational Neuroscience• Neuroinformatics• Computational Evolutionary Biology• Computational genomics• Computational pharmacology• Computational Biomodeling
Physical Sciences• Cheminformatics• Chemometrics• Computational Chemistry• Computational Electromagnetics• Computational Engineering• Computational Fluid Dynamics• Computational Geophysics• Computational Mechanics• Computational Physics• Numerical Weather Prediction
Social Sciences• Computational Archaeology• Computational Economics• Computational Linguistics• Computational Sociology
Business & Law• Computational Finance• Computational Forensics• Computational Law
Information Sciences• Computational Informatics• Computational Intelligence• Cryptography• Computational Statistics• Geographic Information Systems• High Performance Computing• Machine Learning• Network Analysis• Pattern Recognition
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External Resources
Practice-ItUniversity of Washington
External Resources
Coursera/EdXPrinceton University
