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From: alubiw@water.waterloo.edu (Anna Lubiw)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: First Year CS Curriculum
Message-ID: <1990Oct10.190410.19136@water.waterloo.edu>
Date: 10 Oct 90 19:04:10 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 21


At the University of Waterloo we have for a number of years been teaching
a first year computer science course which matches fairly well the curriculum
suggested in the 1989 CACM report "Computing as a Discipline", by Denning
et. al.  In an nutshell they recommend that "the introductory course
contain a rigorous, challenging survey of the whole discipline."

We are having several problems with this course.  We would be interested in 
comparing notes with anyone who has a successful program going.  
Some specific questions are:

1. Are there any text books suitable for such a first year course?

2. Is there an update of the ACM curriculm '78?  The SIGCSE conference
   in January 1990 had some discussion of this, but nothing appears in 
   the proceedings.  Is there something available in written form?

Anna Lubiw
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
University of Waterloo