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Adding some spice to CS1 curricula

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Published:01 March 1997Publication History
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Abstract

CS1 curricula that focus primarily on teaching programming skills may fail to give students a sense of the breadth of topics to which a knowledge of computability might apply. We attempt to correct for this by adding a survey of computing concepts into our introductory course. Sophisticated topics usually reserved for senior level courses are presented in a popular science manner, and given equal time alongside the essential introductory programming material. By exposing students to a broad range of specific computational problems we endeavour to make their first course more interesting and enjoyable, and instil in them a sense of vision for areas they might specialise in as computing majors.

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        cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
        ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 29, Issue 1
        March 1997
        388 pages
        ISSN:0097-8418
        DOI:10.1145/268085
        Issue’s Table of Contents
        • cover image ACM Conferences
          SIGCSE '97: Proceedings of the twenty-eighth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
          March 1997
          410 pages
          ISBN:0897918894
          DOI:10.1145/268084

        Copyright © 1997 ACM

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        Association for Computing Machinery

        New York, NY, United States

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        • Published: 1 March 1997

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