Back to the SIGCSE 2009 Program

Birds-of-a-Feather Session

Thursday 5:15 PM - 6:00 PM (room: As assigned)

A Town Meeting: SIGCSE Committee on Expanding the Women-in-Computing Community		room: Meeting Room 3
	Gloria Childress Townsend, DePauw University Paula Gabbert, Furman
	In January 2004, we organized the second SIGCSE Committee ("Expanding the Women-in-Computing Community"). Our annual Town Meeting provides dissemination of information concerning successful gender issues projects, along with group discussion and brainstorming, in order to create committee goals for the coming year. We select projects to highlight through listserv communication and through our connections with NCWIT, ABI, ACM-W, etc. This year we anticipate project information from the Coalition to Diversify Computing and from the Empowering Leadership Alliance and other major organizations dedicated to expanding the community of women and minorities in computing.

Scratch in the Undergraduate CS Curriculum		room: Meeting Room 6
	Ursula Wolz, The College of New Jersey John Maloney, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) is a programming environment that combines “drag and drop” program construction with a web-based social network. Designed to develop 21st century learning skills, it allows creators of all ages to construct two-dimensional stories, games, animations, music and art. Scratch is used formally in classrooms around the world, but also supports millions of informal programmers via its on-line community. At SIGCSE-08 a standing-room-only BOF discussed what place Scratch might have in the introductory undergraduate curriculum. This year we will address how the Scratch community can support engagement and broaden participation in computing in both formal and informal settings.

The Last Lecture: A Legacy's Impact on Recruiting, Retention, and Learning		room: Meeting Room 15
	Carol Paczolt, Purdue University Mindy Hart, Purdue University
	The Computer Science world is certainly already familiar with the story of Randy Pausch. The familiarity is not only because of his fight with pancreatic cancer and best-selling book, The Last Lecture, but also because of his contributions to the field of computer science through programs such as ALICE. This BOF will provide an opportunity to discuss the potential impact his story can have, especially as a recruiting or teaching tool.

SIGCSE at 40: The Past and the Future		room: Meeting Room 11
	John Impagliazzo, Qatar University Robert Aiken, Temple University Nell Dale, University of Texas - Austin
	This SIGCSE Symposium marks the Fortieth Anniversary of the birth of SIGCSE. This session will host an interactive discussion among the SIGCSE’s attendees and its veterans to exchange ideas on ways to advance the tenets of the organization in light of its historical beginnings. A significant number of SIGCSE pioneers should be present to interact with the attendees. The expected spirited interaction will allow a sharing of ideas to help SIGCSE in the development of its future.

Roadshow Roadmap: Guide for Established Outreach Programs		room: Meeting Room 12
	Suzanne Menzel, Indiana University Bill Hogan, Cornell University Katie Siek, University of Colorado at Boulder
	Many institutions have initiated K-12 outreach roadshow programs, following the lead of Carnegie Mellon University. As the programs mature, issues arise in how to evolve the content, obtain funding and institutional support, reward the participants, collect and organize data, and assess the program. The primary objective of this discussion group is to provide insights, advice, and encouragement from people experienced in dealing with all these issues. We also wish to learn what other people are doing at other schools so we can all benefit from the collected wisdom.

Mathematical Reasoning in Computer Science		room: Meeting Room 7
	Peter Henderson, Butler University Doug Baldwin, SUNY Geneseo Murali Sitaraman, Clemson University
	Mathematics and mathematical reasoning are central to computer science, and, indeed, are becoming increasingly prominent in computing curriculum guidelines. This birds-of-a-feather is a forum for educators to discuss the role of mathematics in computer science, information technology, and software engineering curricula. Discussion topics may include: new curriculum models, new courses, mathematics early, the role of mathematics both in particular courses and throughout the curriculum, available resources, and promoting future change. Opposing as well as supporting views are welcome.

Education, Computers and Society		room: Meeting Room 8
	Florence Appel, Saint Xavier University Joseph Oldham, Centre College
	This session is organized by ACM SIGCAS (Computers and Society) for those interested in addressing the social and ethical consequences of computing within their curricula. We will emphasize sharing resources and ideas, and strengthening our network. Discussion items will include best practices and approaches to teaching computer ethics and social impact, developing programs for recruitment and retention of under-represented populations, and implementing service learning course components. We will also address ways in which SIGCAS and SIGCSE can collaborate to support each other’s work, including organizing a future pre-SIGCSE conference dedicated to computers and society issues.

CIS Students And Civic Engagement		room: Meeting Room 9
	Elinor Madigan, Pennsylvania State University Jeffrey Stone, Pennsylvania State University
	The purpose of this BOF is to discuss the use of community-based projects in CIS programs. Our experiences have shown that students working on community-based projects are more engaged in the classroom, exhibit improvements in the quality of their work, and have an increased level of pride in their work. These experiences serve to forge partnerships with community organizations which give rise to internships and job opportunities. These projects have also spurred growth in CIS program interest within non-majors. Students often seek us out to work on these projects, and the local community often looks to us for solutions.

Web-CAT User Group		room: Meeting Room 10
	Stephen Edwards, Virginia Tech, Computer Science Manuel Perez-Quinones, Virginia Tech, Computer Science
	Web-CAT is the most widely used open-source automated grading system and winner of the 2006 Premier Award, recognizing high-quality, non-commercial courseware for engineering education. Web-CAT is customizable and extensible. It supports a wide variety of programming languages and assessment strategies. Web-CAT is famous for “grading students on how well they test their own code,” but it can do much more. This BOF will allow existing users, new adopters, and those trying to choose an automated grader to meet, share experiences, and talk about what works and what doesn’t. Information on getting started quickly with Web-CAT will also be provided.

High School, post AP C.S. AB: Data Structures.		room: Meeting Room 16
	Lon Levy, Oregon High School Todd O'Bryan, duPont Manual High School
	The College Board has decided to make the May 2009 AP Computer Science AB: Data Structures Exam the last one. While the AP C.S. A course will continue, those schools that offer data structures must modify their curricular offerings. Some high schools may be dropping computer science completely. Other schools are attempting to articulate a course with regional universities. This BOFS is an opportunity for high school data structures teachers and the professors who support such programs to come together and discuss the different approaches we are considering.

Distance Education: Translating the classroom experience to online delivery		room: Meeting Room 17
	William Hochstettler III, Franklin University Danial Bell, Franklin University Esmail Bonakdarian, Franklin University
	A significant challenge in distance education is translating the classroom experience to an online environment. This session will explore techniques that have been used successfully to deal with representative issues such as student to student and student to professor interaction, sensing non-verbal communication, office hours and supplemental material such as multimedia. The value of using pre-recorded or live lecture sessions and the larger issue of synchronous vs. asynchronous activities will be explored, including the use of innovative technology, such as Internet based collaboration tools. Both the experienced or merely curious in engaging students online are encouraged to attend.

Computer Science: Small Department Initiative		room: Meeting Room 18
	Cathy Bareiss, Olivet Nazarene University
	Faculty members in a small department (5 FTE or less) face special challenges and other strengths because of their size. This BOF is a time for faculty to talk with other faculty with similar situations and find ways to meet the shared challenges and to take full advantage of their strengths. While the topics may change based on those attending, the first topic of discussion will be ways to try to increase enrollment within the limits of a small department. A second topic might include designing and assessing curriculum with limited numbers of students and faculty.

Increasing Enrollment in High School Computer Science Courses		room: Meeting Room 19
	Michael Scott, University of Texas at Austin Stacey Armstrong, Cypress Woods High School
	High school computer science teachers face many challenges. The subject matter they teach is often misunderstood by counselors and other teachers. They are often the only computer science teacher at their school. The department they belong to varies from school to school. The goal of this BOF session is to share successful practices high school teachers have used to increase enrollment in their courses and programs.

iPhone Application Development		room: Marriott Plaza AB
	Michael Rogers, Millikin University
	The beauty of Apple's iPhone is more than skin-deep: developing for the iPhone is a great opportunity for Computer Science students to see a world-class framework in action, and then get world-wide recognition by selling their work on the App Store. This Birds of a Feather session will bring together those faculty who are teaching, or (more likely, considering the newness of the product), contemplating teaching, iPhone Application Development.

Putting the Fun Back into CS1		room: Marriott TN River
	Paige Meeker, Presbyterian College
	Many students with an initial interest in a Computer Science major often leave the major after taking the introductory course. These students complain that the material is difficult and boring. This BOF will provide a discussion of how CS professors can create a more enjoyable learning experience for introductory students. I hope that the discussion will provide the participants with ideas for new assignments, new topics, or new techniques for providing an interactive and interesting CS1 experience.

Python in Education		room: Marriott East
	Michael H. Goldwasser, Saint Louis University Claude Anderson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Curtis Clifton, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Richard Enbody, Michigan State University Barbara Ericson, Georgia Tech Mark Goadrich, Centenary College of Louisisana Andrew Harrington, Loyola University Chicago Bradley N. Miller, Luther College David L. Ranum, Luther College Christine A. Shannon, Centre College
	The use of Python has been growing in both industry and computer science education. Its popularity stems from its combination of an elegantly simple yet consistent syntax, together with a powerful and robust core. Python's has been adopted at various institution types (high school, small college, large university), to support various courses (CS0, CS1, CS2, advanced topics), programming paradigms (procedural, object-oriented, functional) and application areas (multimedia, robotics, scientific computing). This BOF will allow educators to discuss their experiences using Python in the classroom, and its potential integration along side other languages in the CS curriculum.

Flattening Computer Science: Internationalization of CS Curriculum		room: Marriott West
	Jens Mache, Lewis & Clark College Virginia Lo, University of Oregon Cynthia A. Brown, Portland State University Steve Tanimoto, University of Washington Jane Chu Prey, Microsoft Research J. Kent Foster, Microsoft Amanda Camp, Google
	Should CS graduates be fluent in Java and Chinese? How do we teach cross-cultural communication, international computer ethics, and universal HCI? How can we best provide globally distributed software development experiences? Come brainstorm these critical questions with us. This discussion started as part of the CPATHi18n.org project sponsored by NSF. Our project has the goal of transforming CS education through internationalization (or i18n, borrowing the abbreviation from the software development community). We are building a Pacific Rim community to implement these ideas. We want to hear your experiences, your creative thoughts, and your vision of the model internationalized CS curriculum.

Teaching Track Faculty in CS		room: Marriott Plaza C
	Donald Slater, Carnegie Mellon University Dan Garcia, University of California, Berkeley
	A panel at SIGCSE 2004 illustrated the trend in computer science departments to hire faculty to teach in a teaching-track position that parallels the standard tenure-track position, providing the possibility of promotion, longer-term contracts, and higher pay for excellence in teaching and service. [1] This birds-of-a-feather is designed to gather educators who are currently in such a position to share their experiences as members of the faculty of their departments and schools, and to provide opportunities for schools considering such positions to gather information.