At the end of each semester, I ask each class to make their own list of learning outcomes for what they think they've taken away from CSC 151. I tend to break the learning outcomes of the class down into a variety of categories whose order seems to vary over time.

This is my own list, which is clearly incomplete.

Problem Solving

This is a course in problem solving. Even if you never program again, I hope that you learn habits of mind that make improve the ways in which you solve problems.

• Discuss the problem and the potential solutions with others
• Specify requirements formally
• Decompose into simpler problems
• Try examples and then generalize
• Once you have a solution, try it on different kinds of inputs
• Consider corner cases

Algorithm Design

At its heart, computer science is about designing algorithms (instructions for manipulating data) and structures (mechanisms for organizing data). Here are some key CS issues we consider in CSC 151.

• Components of algorithms
  • Variables - named values
  • Sequencing - mechanisms for doing tasks in order
  • Conditionals - making choices
  • Repetition/iteration - Doing things again and and again again
  • Subroutines/procedures - Named and parameterized subalgorithms
  • Basic types operations - Your building blocks
• Data structures
  • Lists
  • Trees
• Recursion
  • Basic concepts
  • Structural, over lists
  • Numeric
  • Structural, over trees
  • Tail recursion
• Higher-order programming
  • Procedures as parameters and return values
• Common algorithms
  • Searching (sequential, insertion)
  • Sorting (selection, insertion, merge, bubble)
• Algorithmic techniques
  • Divide and conquer
  • Map/Reduce
  • Iteration
• Algorithm analysis
  • The benefits of counting steps
  • Common cost vs. size patterns
• Randomness
• Simple operations plus control structures can yield complex behavior

Scheme

Even though many students refer to this as "the Scheme course", Scheme is a tool for learning computational thinking, rather than the subject matter of this course. Nonetheless, we do learn a lot of the Scheme programming language. Here are some key topics in Scheme.

• Vocabulary!
  • A few hundred procedures, at last count
• Syntax (parentheses and more!)
• Evaluation model (generally inside-out)
• Naming values (define and let)
• Types of values and the basic operations on those types
  • Numbers (reals, rationals, integers, complex, exact, inexact)
  • Characters
  • Strings
  • Lists
  • Vectors
  • Symbols
  • New types for Mediascheme (drawings, turtles, etc.)
• Defining procedures
  • Named
  • Anonymous with let
  • Anonymous with higher-order procedures
• Boolean values and predicates
• Conditionals (if, cond, when, sometimes clever uses of and and or)
• Higher-order programming, basics
  • map
  • o
  • for-each
  • l-s and r-s
• Repetition (map, for-each, repeat, recursion)
• Higher-order programming, advanced
  • Writing your own procedures that take procedures as parameters
  • Writing your own procedures that return procedures as results
• Rackunit testing

Program and Software Design

While programming is not the key idea of CS, it is nonetheless an important and useful skill, and often serves as the best form for expressing computational ideas.

• Document
• Test - Broken code is a failure of the imagination
• Find patterns and express them as functions
• Generalize / refactor
• Analyze (informally, as well as formally)
• Don't repeat code!

Images as Process

A general theme of computer science is that there are multiple ways to think about any problem, and different models better support different kinds of problems. In CSC 151, we help illustrate that idea by providing you with different models of image making.

• Declarative
  • Stretchable Colorforms - Images as collections of basic shapes
  • Pixel model 1 - Images as collections of individually computed pixels
  • Pixel model 2 - Images as functions from position to color
• Imperative
  • GIMP Tools - Image making through graphics application
• Object-oriented (?)
  • Turtle Graphics - Image making through robotic helpers

General Skills

I consider it the responsibility of every Grinnell course to teach you some things beyond the disciplinary subject matter. Some classes may work on your writing. Others on your presentation skills. Here are some of the skills I hope that you've worked on. Note that we do these more through experience than explicit instruction.

• Collaboration; Working with other people
• Coping with stress
• Thinking on your feet
• Habits of citation
• Asking for help

And Beyond

When I was your age, my mother told me that she was considering a research project on faculty members as moral models. I told her that I didn't consider any of my faculty moral models. But now that I'm a faculty member of about the same age as she was then, I realize that I do try to serve as a moral model for my students. I probably don't succeed, but I try.

• Care about the people around you.
• Your classmates do wonderful things. Support and value them.
• There is more to life than CS (or any academic subject).
• Ask for help.
• It's okay to make mistakes.
• Think about your choices / be moderate in what you do.
• Have fun with what you do.
• Feed people.