This workshop illustrates the wide variety of applications of computational thinking at conceptual and practical levels through a series of teacher-participation exercises and presentations. In particular, the workshop includes hands-on activities that teachers can duplicate in their classrooms to illustrate computing principles beyond computer programming.
We will illustrate the use of the popular Computer Science Unplugged activities which show students computing concepts without the use of computers. Much of the material will be based on a new course that runs at Carnegie Mellon University titled Principles of Computation that highlights various aspects of computation, presented in a way that is applicable to all students, not just computer science majors. In addition to the material on computation, we will introduce the Raptor Flowchart Interpreter which allows students to design computations using standard flowcharting symbols without dealing with program language syntax.
Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (DRL-0833496).
