Computational Thinking - A New Approach for Teaching Computer Science to College Freshmen

• Main Author: Wärmedal, Linnea
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för datavetenskap 2014
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-92827

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas The traditional way of introducing computer science to college freshmen is through a programming course. Such a course often account for programming, problem solving, efficiency, debugging, memory allocation and complexity. The student is presented to all of this within the first course in computer science. To be introduced to all these concepts during the first course could be compared to learning fundamental arithmetic alongside the mean value theorem. What if the student, instead of learning the traditional, where to learn the basics of computer science? What if programming didn’t come first? If the student where to get proficient in the basics of computer science they would be able to focus on the specifics of the different field of computer science. In this thesis I present a proposition of a syllabus for a college freshmen course to be taught to computer science minors. The course will be built on the concepts of computational thinking. The concept of computational thinking and how it is used in education will also be account for.