WINSLOW — For those with computer technological know-how, “beauty” and “joy” are probably not the first phrases the concern brings to mind. However, for college kids at Winslow High School, the case may additionally soon be exceptional. Next year, the college will introduce a university-stage magnificence titled “Beauty and Joy of Computing.” To debut in the fall, the magnificence will train college students in programming abilities and the “social implications of computers.”
The yearlong route, open to sophomores through seniors, will prepare students for the A.P. Computer Science Principles examination in May. After passing the district’s curriculum committee, it obtained unanimous approval from the Winslow school board at an assembly Monday night.
As faculty board member John Ferry quickly pointed out, the class’s call sounds unusual. It comes from the University of California–Berkeley, where the curriculum was piloted in 2010 as a college direction for non-computer technology majors. The elegance was later tailored for use inside the high school Advanced Placement software.
Lauren Mock, the system manager of Beauty and Joy of Computing at Berkeley, said 4,500 excessive school students across the United States of America used the “BJC” curriculum as instruction for the A.P. Computer Science Principles exam within the 2017-18 faculty year. She becomes unsure how many students attend Maine. According to Code.Org, simply 30 faculties inside the country currently offer an A.P. computer technological know-how path.
The route teaches the amateur-pleasant drag-and-drop programming language Snap! Along with the “social implications of computers,” which is consistent with the syllabus. Students will use Snap! to create algorithms that can, for instance, simulate highway site visitors or graph statistics to help them become aware of trends. Topics of dialogue range from massive data and cybersecurity to how the internet is dependent.
“It offers a better understanding of ways computer systems work — it’s now not simply programming,” stated Julie Houston, who teaches Winslow High School’s pc science training. “But they do several programming on Snap! That teaches them more about what goes on obtainable in technology. It’s no longer simply sitting down and writing a program to calculate how much change any individual has. And it stays up on an era. We’re continuously discussing all the changes via information articles.”
While the brand new course is the first inside the department with an A.P. designation, Winslow High School has blanketed pc science in its curriculum for numerous years.
College students can take Computer Applications, Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD), Multimedia Web Design, and computer pre-engineering as unmarried-semester electives. The school also offers a yearlong Computer Programming direction. Each student must provide a minimum computer programming course direction to graduate, though they can opt to take extra electives.
Houston is coaching all five computer technology courses the school offers simultaneously this semester. “What they sign up for is what I teach,” she said. Class sizes range from sixteen to 21 students. While Houston said she was satisfied with the increased interest in laptop guides this semester, she also stated that the instructions remained male-dominated. Only two out of sixteen college students enrolled in Computer Programming these 12 months are women.
“I’d like to push for more girls to be programmers because I enjoyed it again in college,” noted Houston, a University of Maine at Farmington graduate. “(The women I train now) are virtually excellent programmers. They do just in addition to what the men do. But yes, there is a long way to go, and fewer girls are in programming. They’re more likely to enroll in the (Computer Applications). Sometimes I get girls inside the CAD instructions, however mostly boys.”
The demand for laptop technology is increasing. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, computer and information technology jobs are projected to grow thirteen percent quicker than the average of all occupations within the USA from 2016 to 2026.
That equates to roughly 750 net jobs added in that point body in Maine. Computer and information era jobs in Maine had an annual mean wage of $79,031 in May 2017, while the implied yearly salary for all occupations in Maine turned to $ forty-five three hundred in May 2017, in step with the Bureau of Labor’s Occupational Employment Statistics.
According to Code.Org, if college students analyze P.C. technological know-how in excessive college, six instances are likelier to be most important in university. Women are ten cases more likely. Yet, 23 percent of Maine students who took an A.P. Computer Science exam in 2018 were women.
Eleventh-grader Carrie Selwood enrolled in Computer Programming and said she had determined the course to be valuable. She stated that she had discovered the way to program with the laptop languages Snap!, Alice, and Python and could learn Java by the end of 12 months.
“I took it because I’m no longer sure what I need to do for my future yet, and programming is always a good step inside the right path,” she stated. The class is about using code to create drawings and animations. “Depending on what you want to do, all of these (languages) can be useful, especially today.”
“It’s a particular pace and topic than something else in the college,” said senior Nick Tiner, a Computer Programming scholar. “History, English, and foreign languages are all kinds of equal, fashionable stuff. But with pc stuff, it can practice your possible fundamentals in college or — I don’t recognize — learn about how a pc works. It’s simply extra exciting. It’s unique than something else.”
Houston stated she learned about the Beauty and Joy of Computing curriculum from Technology Director William Backman, who works with Waterville, Winslow, and Vassalboro faculty.
There are upwards of 15 other corporations that have created laptop technological know-how curricula designed for excessive school use. Still, the Beauty and Joy of Computing is one of the simplest College Board-recommended AP-level services that do not value any money to put in force. Even the “Blown to Bits” textbook is unfastened as a digital reproduction online.
“They’re seeking to push computer technological know-how so much that they’ll even just (cover the expenses of a trainer attending) a training as long as they may simply teach one laptop technology elegance,” Houston stated. During the ultimate summer season, she attended a weeklong education at the Beauty and Joy of Computing curriculum in Fairfax, Virginia, which became paid for using Code.Org and other countrywide organizations.
Houston stated she hopes Winslow’s new course, with its interdisciplinary awareness, will attract students who would otherwise no longer be inclined to take a programming magnificence—or maybe an A.P. route.
“I suppose there are a few kids out there that probably this may be their only A.P. class,” she stated. Messalonskee High School is the best place for faculties that give A.P. Computer Science Principles, which Nick Hart has taught there for about five years. Messalonskee High School Computer Science instructor Karen Kelley also teaches Web Design, a dual-enrollment course with Thomas College that permits college students to earn excessive school and university credit, just like the Advanced Placement program.
Waterville Senior High School recently received an $881,000 grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation to expand its computer technology program, even though the one-credit course it will pilot in the fall will no longer have an A.P. designation. “They’re pursuing this slight one-of-a-kind route,” Backman stated.
Maine has long been at the back of the curve in pc science training relative to the rest of the kingdom. Waterville High School did not offer any computing lessons this year, in step with Backman. Students who want to get worried about coding in Waterville usually locate extracurricular outlets. “There are casual opportunities for computer programming, and that is regularly through the Lego robotics competition, which takes place at the junior high stage,” stated Backman.
In 2017, the Legislature passed a bill to establish an assignment force to “develop a knowledgeable strategy to integrate computer science into the State’s skill ability-primarily based excessive faculty diploma necessities, as well as to show all college students to laptop science as a fundamental ability and as an ability profession direction.” The organization issued a file in January 2018 outlining six guidelines for the state to consider in dealing with the hassle.
