The TeachScheme! Project (original) (raw)

Rice University's TeachScheme! Project develops and disseminates an innovative introductory curriculum on computing. The Project's primary premise is that Computer Science is as essential to a liberal arts education as English and mathematics. Students who learn to design programs properly learn to analyze a problem statement, typically stated as a word problem; express its essence, abstractly and with examples; formulate statements and comments in a precise language; evaluate and revise these activities in light of checks and tests; and pay attention to details. In short, they learn those skills that problem solving in mathematics and essay writing in English (should) teach, too.

To accomplish this goal, the TeachScheme! Project has developed two radically novel concepts:

• program design recipes, which gently guide beginners through the entire process
• DrScheme, a pedagogic programming environment that makes programming easy and fun These innovations enable teachers and students to focus entirely on problem solving skills and to ignore the whimsical details of syntax almost completely. They have been classroom tested by over 60 high school and college teachers. And they work!

You can learn more about these new ideas from the TeachScheme! Summer Workshop series:

• The first workshop introduces the fundamental design recipes and DrScheme, while
• the second workshop covers the supplementary transition to Java.

For more information, visit the following Web trees: