Designing and Evaluating a CS + Law Introduction to Computer Science

这个项目的意义和重要性在于开发一个新颖的和有吸引力的形式的大学水平的计算机科学入门课程。该课程将整合基于编程的计算机科学入门课程的传统主题，并考虑围绕在线隐私和安全的法律和公共政策问题。例如，像二维数组这样的主题将通过在像芝加哥这样的城市中构建谋杀地图而不是一些计算机游戏的棋盘来说明;并且将伴随着警察局使用这种地图进行预测警务的利弊以及预测警务引起的法律的问题的讨论。该项目的具体教育研究目标是检验三种说法。首先，新的入门课程，其内容来自一个领域（法律），其学生大约有50%是女性，是否可以吸引更多的妇女在公立大学主修计算机科学。第二，旨在增加妇女参与计算的同样做法是否也可能增加其他代表性不足的学生群体的参与。第三，一门以广大公众广泛感兴趣的主题（法律，特别是在线隐私和安全法）为基础的计算机科学入门课程是否会成功地吸引更多的非计算机科学专业学生参加额外的计算机科学课程。

The significance and importance of this project lies in developing a novel and attractive form of a college-level introductory Computer Science course. The course will integrate the traditional topics of a programming-based introductory Computer Science course with a consideration of the law and public policy issues surrounding online privacy and security. For example, a topic like 2-dimensional arrays will be illustrated by building a map of murders in a city like Chicago instead of the board of some computer game; and will be accompanied by discussion of the pros and cons of a Police Department's use of such maps for predictive policing together with the legal issues predictive policing raises. The specific education research goals of the project are testing three claims. First, whether new introductory curricula, with content drawn from a field (law) whose students are roughly 50 percent female, can attract more women to major in Computer Science at a public university. Second, whether the same practices aimed at increasing the participation of women in computing might also increase the participation of other underrepresented student groups. Third, whether an introductory Computer Science course grounded in a subject of wide interest to much of the general public (law, and especially online privacy and security law) will succeed in drawing more non-CS majors into taking additional Computer Science courses.