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tl;dr: Teach programming with DrScheme with the application being simple math/physics homework most students would just use a calculator for, but can now sort o
by Jach 15y ago
tl;dr: Teach programming with DrScheme with the application being simple math/physics homework most students would just use a calculator for, but can now sort of explore the contrived problems with images instead of pure numbers, and don't try to teach CS.
The early stats on AP test takers are misleading. It accounts for the Calculus AB + Calculus BC. Taking just the BC number, whose difficulty is probably closer to that of the AP CS A test (the B got wiped out 'cause hardly anyone took it), there were only 78,998 takers in 2010. While still a lot more than the CS test, it's not grossly larger by an order of magnitude as initially suggested. (Edit: I say the BC test is probably closer in difficulty based on my own experience. I took the CS B test when it was around and only got a 3, but got a 5 on the Calc BC test.)
- camperman 15y agoA less cynical tl;dr might be: students of all ages can discover that algebra can be a form of "moving math" that can be used to program their own video games. Once they grasp this, they tend to find out lots of stuff on their own - for fun. This gives them a vast leg up when it comes to college. I've used DrScheme to teach the poorest of poor kids this stuff and it works stupendously.
- Jach 15y agoOf course. I'll agree anything that gets kids to self-teach is good, as that's the real problem of education (in other words, no desire to learn for any reason), and this approach apparently has experimental backing from you and the paper. I just don't think this should replace standard CS, but rather be something separate; call it something like Elementary Programming, and probably encourage it more than standard CS.