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Welcome to BLC16! Building Learning Communities Education Conference 2016! Join colleagues from around the world who care deeply about bringing the best innovative and practical learning resources to our students. Our 17th BLC education conference will provide you with inspiration, practical skills and expand your professional network with educators from around the world.
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Wednesday, July 20 • 11:45am - 12:50pm
This is CS50

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CS50 is Harvard University's introductory course for majors and non-majors alike, a one-semester amalgam of courses generally known as CS1 and CS2. In 2007, we set out to alter the course's style and tone to resonate with those "less comfortable" and "more comfortable" alike, albeit without sacrificing the course's historical rigor. We maintained the course's underlying syllabus but revamped every problem set, providing students not only with more direction but context as well. And we augmented the course's support structure. As of 2015, CS50 is Harvard's largest course with over 800 students, up from 132 in 2006, and those "less comfortable" now compose the course's largest demographic. Since 2015, CS50 is now also offered in parallel at Yale University. Also as of 2015 is a version of the course specifically geared for secondary school and the new AP CS Principles curriculum (CS50 AP) now offered in approximately 45 middle and high schools around the country, with a wider rollout beginning in 2016. 
We present in this talk what we have done to evolve the course and why we have done it. We also look at CS50’s online counterpart, CS50x, Harvard College's first course to be offered on an even larger scale via edX with over 500,000 registrants, and we examine CS50 AP by discussing the changes made to adapt the curriculum and bootstrap teachers. In the second half, we host a panel discussion and Q&A including several teachers who have successfully adopted or adapted the CS50 AP curriculum in their own classrooms this past school year.

If you would like to apply to join us at one of our teacher training workshops during 2016 so you can bring CS50 AP to your school, apply now at https://cs50.harvard.edu/ap/apply
Speakers
avatar for David Malan

David Malan

Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, Harvard University
David J. Malan is Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a Member of the Faculty of Education in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He received his A.B., S.M., and Ph.D. in Computer Science... Read More →

Wednesday July 20, 2016 11:45am - 12:50pm EDT
Terrace - Lower Level Boston Park Plaza
  Main Conference Session
  • Intended Audience General
  • Strand Nurturing Creativity Curiosity Empathy and Courage
  • Session Level All

Attendees (34)