CS 402 Overview

Course Overview

Computer science (CS) is revolutionizing all of our lives. Innovations in computation drive our economy and underlie almost all our advances in science and engineering. To flourish in today's world, everyone needs to understand not only how to effectively use computers and technology, but also computational thinking.  Computational thinking is a way of solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior that draws on concepts fundamental to computer science; computational thinking enables individuals to specify solutions so precisely that even computers can follow the directions.  Although computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists, most individuals are not exposed to it

The primary objective of our clubs is to introduce the benefits of computation to the next generation.  Our next generation’s scientists, engineers, teachers, entrepreneurs, and artists must all be able to innovate using computation.  Therefore, we propose to introduce elementary and middle school students to computational thinking.  We believe this is the ideal age because the students are mature enough to understand key mathematical concepts and have acquired basic computer-usage skills, yet are young enough to have few misconceptions about computer science.  Our secondary objective is for students to obtain experience with the creative aspects of computation. One of the empowering aspects of computation is that individuals are not limited to being passive users of technology; instead, even novices can create their own original games, stories, art, music, and more.

In this course, each UW student is part of a small team (2-4 UW students) responsible for leading an afterschool (or Sunday) club.  The clubs are held weekly and involve the same group of kids each week.  Each UW student is expected to be a club setting for at least 10 hours over the semester; the afterschool clubs are all 1 hour (or 1.5 hours) each and run for 10-12 weeks.  UW students are expected to spend time preparing content for each club meeting; most of the content is centered around programming in Scratch (see http://scratch.mit.edu).   

STUDENT GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE

Any student at UW–Madison who feels that they have been treated unfairly has the right to voice a complaint and receive a prompt hearing of the grievance. The basis for a grievance can range from something as subtle as miscommunication to the extreme of harassment.

Ensuring that all students feel welcome and supported is a top priority of our department. The Department of Computer Sciences has developed procedures to handle complaints or incidents that are student-related, such as bias or mistreatment, or academic, such as a grade dispute or incident with an instructor. Information on the CS reporting procedures can be found here: https://www.cs.wisc.edu/report-an-incident/ Links to an external site.

For assistance in determining options, students can also contact the drop-in staff member within the Dean of Students Office at 608-263-5700, within Bascom Hall, Room 70, Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–4 p.m.