Metropolitan State College of Denver

Building Communities Sharing Best Practices
»	About the Program
»	Success Stories
»	Curriculum Overview
»	View all Curricula
»	Resources

See Also:
»	Java Everywhere
»	Java.net
»	Sun's Solutions for Education and Research
»	Sun's Technology and Academic Resources
»	Global Education and Learning Community

A Call to Action: Raising Interest and Participation
Metropolitan's Resources for Educators

The goal of the Computer Science Outreach Project at Metropolitan State College of Denver (MSCD) is to expand the accessibility of Computer Science content by reaching out to students from demographic groups significantly underrepresented in Computer Science and helping teachers to integrate the fundamentals of this discipline into interest-based, multi-disciplinary curricula. This is one way in which the project designers at Metropolitan State College hope to "shatter inappropriate stereotypes about what makes a good Computer Science student or Software Engineer."

"The historical approach has been to start with the required curriculum and attempt to develop more interesting means of delivering that curriculum. The alternative that proved more successful...was starting with activities that are interesting to the target students and attempting to develop links with the required curriculum. This paradigm shift is subtle yet profound..."

Dr. Jody Paul

Dr. Jody Paul has been teaching Computer Science since 1986. Dr. Paul is also a Senior Computer Scientist at RAND, "a non-profit institution that addresses the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world." He also serves on The College Board. Dr. Paul recognizes the implications of The College Board's decision to change the programming language used in the high school Computer Science Advanced Placement (AP) exams to Java.

A Call To Action

A central issue for Dr. Jody Paul and his colleagues at MSCD is that of finding alternative approaches to teaching Computer Science in an effort to raise student interest and participation. In his workshops and courses, Dr. Paul cites research and data indicating that enrollment in Computer Science is dropping. This is especially true for under-represented student populations, and it is one reason why Dr. Paul and his colleagues have designed and implemented a new Computer Science Education course titled Developing Alternative Secondary Curriculum. In this course, new strategies and approaches to teaching Computer Science reframe the focus onto interest-based learning.

Dr. Paul and his colleagues have conducted a Workshop for Educators that includes an overview of the issues, principles, practices, and presentations of newly developed curriculum units. The workshop attracts a wide variety of educators and students from different grade levels and disciplines. This diversity of participation is something Dr. Paul both encourages and enjoys.

Metropolitan's Resources for Educators

The MSCD team developed a series of presentations and curricula on topics related to teaching Java and Computer Science. The materials have been developed with funds from the Sun Foundation. Please find descriptions of a few lessons below:

Title	Category	Brief Description
MSCD Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences	Computer Science Curricula, Presentations, and Java Projects	Students and teachers can get a sense of the innovative curricula offered at MSCD
Robot Can Do Challenge	Java gaming activity	Students work in teams of two to complete the challenge of designing, building, programming, testing, and debugging a Lego robot that can move soda cans out of an oval rink.
The Great Rodent Game	Java gaming activity	Students understand simple games while working collaboratively in groups. The trick is that each student is also given a different set of rules and they cannot share with each other while working collaboratively.