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TeachScheme!: a checkpoint

Published:27 September 2010Publication History
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Abstract

In 1995, my team and I decided to create an outreach project that would use our research on functional programming to change the K-12 computer science curriculum. We had two different goals in mind. On the one hand, our curriculum should rely on mathematics to teach programming, and it d exploit programming to teach mathematics. All students - not just those who major in computer science - should benefit. On the other hand, our course should demonstrate that introductory programming can focus on program design, not just a specific syntax. We also wished to create a smooth path from a design-oriented introductory course all the way to courses on large software projects.

My talk presents a checkpoint of our project, starting with our major scientific goal, a comprehensive theory of program design. Our work on this theory progresses through the development of program design courses for all age groups. At this point, we offer curricular materials for middle schools, high schools, three college-level freshman courses, and a junior-level course on constructing large components. We regularly use these materials to train K-12 teachers, after-school volunteers, and college faculty; thus far, we have reached hundreds of instructors, who in turn have dealt with thousands of students in their classrooms.

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References

  1. }}C. Eastlund, D. Vaillancourt, and M. Felleisen. ACL2 for freshmen-first experiences. In Proc. 7th ACL2 Workshop, pages 200--211, 2007.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
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  3. }}M. Felleisen, R. B. Findler, M. Flatt, and S. Krishnamurthi. How to Design Programs. MIT Press, 2001.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  4. }}M. Felleisen, R. B. Findler, M. Flatt, and S. Krishnamurthi. The TeachScheme! project: Computing and programming for every student. Computer Science Education, 14: 55--77, 2004.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  5. }}M. Felleisen, R. B. Findler, M. Flatt, and S. Krishnamurthi. The structure and interpretation of the computer science curriculum. Journal of Functional Programming, 14 (4): 365--378, 2004. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  6. }}R. B. Findler, J. Clements, C. Flanagan, M. Flatt, S. Krishnamurthi, P. Steckler, and M. Felleisen. DrScheme: A programming environment for Scheme. Journal of Functional Programming, 12 (2): 159--182, Mar. 2002. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  7. }}M. Flatt and PLT. Reference: Racket. Technical report, PLT Inc., June 2010. http://racket-lang.org/tr1/.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  8. }}R. L. Page. Software is discrete mathematics. In International Conference on Functional Programming, pages 79--86, 2003. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  9. }}R. L. Page, C. Eastlund, and M. Felleisen. Functional programming and theorem proving for undergraduates. In Functional and Declarative Programming in Education, pages 21--30, 2008. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library

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        • Published in

          cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices
          ACM SIGPLAN Notices  Volume 45, Issue 9
          ICFP '10
          September 2010
          382 pages
          ISSN:0362-1340
          EISSN:1558-1160
          DOI:10.1145/1932681
          Issue’s Table of Contents
          • cover image ACM Conferences
            ICFP '10: Proceedings of the 15th ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming
            September 2010
            398 pages
            ISBN:9781605587943
            DOI:10.1145/1863543

          Copyright © 2010 Copyright is held by the author/owner(s)

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          Association for Computing Machinery

          New York, NY, United States

          Publication History

          • Published: 27 September 2010

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