These reflective written exercises connect computer science class material to everyday life experience of the students, illustrate interdisciplinary applications of computing and technology, and highlight the new issues that computing technology brings. Each exercise consists of a video to view and discussion questions to answer in writing (e.g. "How would your day-to-day life change if you had access to an affordable 3D printer and raw materials?" or, "How do algorithms shape our world"?). Students are allowed to work solo or in pairs, and to use any resources available to them (internet sites and forums, classmates, family members, friends outside of class, etc.) No prior experience with computer science is necessary to complete the exercises, and no programming is involved.
Each exercise is given as a last problem in a weekly programming homework assignment that also contains three or four programming problems.
Often each exercise connects to programming assignments and in-class discussion of respective week, however, this connection should be made explicit by the instructor. The exercises in the sequence are self-contained and don’t rely on particular topic coverage, they can be reordered and replaced. A conscious effort was made to include culture- and gender- diverse speakers, and to cover a broad variety of topics. It is recommended to maintain and enhance this diversity when updates to the material are made.
There is no one right answer to most questions. Coherent short-paragraph responses are expected (not just a list of bullet points). Some outstanding answers (both correct and incorrect) can serve as starters for in-class discussions.
See the attached assignment for more recommendations.
In this exercise, students are asked to critically reflect on significant issues currently in CS, which helps to make this content Meaningful and Relevant. In addition, the videos explore many Interdisciplinary Connections to the Field of CS such as using games for medical rehabilitation, Cybersecurity and 3D printing.