[plt-edu] Re: [plt-scheme] behaviour of void?

On Feb 16, 2009, at 12:02 PM, geb a wrote:

>
> If you examine any of the technical disciplines, students in those  
> disciplines would be much more effective with a knowledge of the  
> programming principles laid out in htdp.  In physics, I could have  
> save much time with a knowledge of computing.  Bioinformatics is  
> almost completely a computer discipline. I'm convinced that one or  
> two software courses in an engineering discipline is not  
> sufficient.  If drscheme could be turned into a general purpose  
> environment that could handle large amounts of computation, it would  
> make a perfect integrating language.

One or two courses is not sufficient, and neither is three or four.  I  
don't think that most engineers, for example, can afford the time to  
develop the wisdom of computer scientists (or vice versa.)  Computer  
science needs to be trusted to glue the other technologies together,  
perhaps with 'a perfect integrating language' as you suggest.  I am  
trying to make this happen in our lab, but guess what?  I am not a  
computer scientist, so I am not making much progress.  Furthermore,  
the other disciplines seem satisfied with blaming software development  
for their scheduling woes. :)

>
>
> My son, who characterized himself as a "non math person" in 7th  
> grade and who was earning low B's and C's now earns perfect scores  
> on his honors math exams.  His success is a combination of tutoring  
> and programming as well as a decision on his part to excel.  But I  
> believe that to a large degree, the skills he learned using htdp  
> made the difference.  I believe that when he goes to study  
> engineering, he will benefit from what he learned.

I wish I could hire people like your son :)

rac

>
>
>
>
> --- On Sun, 2/15/09, Richard Cleis <rcleis at mac.com> wrote:
>
>> From: Richard Cleis <rcleis at mac.com>
>> Subject: Re: [plt-edu] Re: [plt-scheme] behaviour of void?
>> To: geb_a at yahoo.com
>> Cc: "Grant Rettke" <grettke at acm.org>, plt-scheme at list.cs.brown.edu
>> Date: Sunday, February 15, 2009, 6:59 PM
>> On Feb 15, 2009, at 6:37 PM, geb a wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes, the focus is on htdp with advanced students
>> working on projects that use programming in other
>> disciplines.  I really believe that computer science should
>> be central to a strong technical background.  In fact, a
>> computer science student should be able to compute circles
>> around any other student.
>>
>> Are you saying that graduates of other disciplines should
>> know more of what CS graduates know?  Or are you saying that
>> CS graduates should be able to implement better software for
>> the other disciplines than the disciplines can muster
>> themselves?  In my world, it seems that overall
>> effectiveness doesn't match up to our considerable
>> individual abilities because it is nearly impossible to mix
>> & match the resources of all of the disciplines.  It
>> would be wonderful if the tech disciplines knew more about
>> CS, but I don't see that ever happening.  I do hope for
>> the day when more effective overlapping of expertise comes
>> to pass.
>>
>> rac
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dan Anderson
>>>
>>>
>>> --- On Sat, 2/14/09, Grant Rettke
>> <grettke at acm.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> From: Grant Rettke <grettke at acm.org>
>>>> Subject: Re: [plt-edu] Re: [plt-scheme] behaviour
>> of void?
>>>> To: geb_a at yahoo.com
>>>> Cc: "Prabhakar Ragde"
>> <plragde at uwaterloo.ca>, "Matthias Felleisen"
>> <matthias at ccs.neu.edu>, "plt edu"
>> <plt-edu at list.cs.brown.edu>, "Shriram
>> Krishnamurthi" <sk at cs.brown.edu>, "PLT
>> List" <plt-scheme at list.cs.brown.edu>
>>>> Date: Saturday, February 14, 2009, 8:35 PM
>>>> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 8:23 PM, geb a
>>>> <geb_a at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>> So what kinds of exercises are you looking
>> for?  I
>>>> guess I'm in the unique position of being able
>> to use
>>>> programming to teach Science, Technology,
>> Engineering and
>>>> Mathematics projects.   As a high school teacher,
>> I feel
>>>> like computer science should be about integrating
>> these
>>>> disciplines.
>>>>
>>>> I wish I had gone to school where you teach. Is it
>> common
>>>> practice for
>>>> highschools these days to include CS? What is your
>> title?
>>>> CS teacher?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _________________________________________________
>>> For list-related administrative tasks:
>>> http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/listinfo/plt-scheme
>
>
>
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