CS2013-final-report

Mathematical Foundations (two designated 4-credit courses, plus a 4-credit elective)
MAT 124 or MAT 131 – Calculus I
MAT/CSC 208 – Discrete Mathematics or MAT 218 – Combinatorics
MAT ### – Mathematics elective with calculus I or later course as prerequisite
Regularly offered 4-credit electives include Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics,
Computer Networks, Computer Vision, and Human-Computer Interaction. Various 1-credit
options and 4-credit special-topics courses may be offered on a regular basis or under special
circumstances. The department also provides students with the opportunity to broaden their
learning through a weekly seminar series and a weekly reading group. Independent projects and
student-faculty research projects are common, particularly during the summer.
Curricular Analysis
With choices in systems, languages, and software engineering, students could follow any of eight
paths through a “minimal” major (counting Discrete Mathematics as the lesser of the supporting
mathematics options). Through advising, students often took both CSC 211 and CSC 213, as
well as additional electives to meet specific educational or career objectives. The following table
compares several possible routes through the 2012-2013 major, which aligned well to earlier
curricular recommendations.
Grinnell's 2012-2013 Curriculum Tier 1 Tier 2
Minimal major: only the basic requirements 59-73% 34-53%
Expanded minimal major: 9 courses including 211 & 213 74-75% 50-57%
Typical major: 10 courses including 211, 213 & either AI or Networks 76-78% 62%
Careful analysis indicated considerable strength in some areas (e.g., algorithms, theory) that fit
particularly well within a liberal arts context. However, reduction in some strong areas (e.g.,
programming languages) could allow expansion in other areas to reflect the evolution of the
discipline, particularly in the areas of distributed processing, networking, and security. Also,
although the existing curriculum informally highlighted SP content, a 2013 departmental review
identified some topics for a more systematic treatment.
In addition, Grinnell’s computer science curriculum employs a spiral approach to learning.
Students may be introduced to a topic in one course (perhaps at the Familiarity level in CS
2013's terminology), then utilize that material in a second course (perhaps attaining a Usage level
of mastery), and still later engage the topic at a deep, Assessment, level in a third course. Our
spiral approach may also lead us to repeat the same concept at the same level, but with
variations. For example, students build lists and tree using pair structures in CSC 151, build
linked lists and worry about memory management in CSC 152, and build doubly and circularly
linked lists in CSC 153. Any of these approaches would likely suffice to meet CS 2013 goals,
but we find that students have much deeper understanding with this repeated and increasingly
nuanced approach. As a result of the spiral approach, many topics that are covered once in CS
2013 are covered multiple times in Grinnell’s curriculum, which complicates both hour counts
and bookkeeping. The spiral approach is most clearly represented in the AL and SDF sections in
the mapping below.
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