Adding Breadth and Laboratories to the Introductory ComputerScience Courses

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Adding Breadth and Laboratories to the Introductory Computer Science CoursesThis project develops two modifications to the first two years of the undergraduate computer science curriculum in response to ACM recommendations. The first modification broadens the focus of these courses from primarily software development techniques to consideration of the breadth of the computer science discipline. The second change blends the use of scheduled, structured laboratories with the traditional lecture approach. Students are provided activities that require the concrete manipulation of the concepts discussed in the lecture portion of the course. Project activities include the development and class-testing of lecture and text materials to support the "breadth" approach to content presentation. Materials are also being developed to support the laboratory portion of the courses. These laboratory exercises are sufficiently independent of the lecture to allow them to be used with curricular arrangements other than the one being developed in this project. The project includes an assessment component that attempts to measure the effectiveness of the materials developed during the project. Finally, the project will disseminate the results of the curriculum and materials development phases through summer workshops, publications, and presentations at professional meetings.