Many sessions at SIGCSE symposia, conferences, and other events suggest several goals for introductory computer science courses:

Recruitment: Connecting with Students

• Showing the breadth of the discipline
• Highlighting problem solving: the intellectual challenge
• Demonstrating applications: ways CS contributes to society
• Promoting careers: publicizing job opportunities and professional paths
• Experiencing computational thinking

Laying the Foundation

• Problem-solving paradigm(s): functional, imperative, and/or object-oriented
• Algorithms
• Data structures
• Programming: precision of thinking, experience with environments needed later

created 1 March 2009 last revised 1 March 2009

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