Monthly Archives: February 2012

Start’em Early

Computer Science skills can be learned at any age.  I have been going to my sons’ elementary school for the last 3 years at least twice a year, teaching their classes how to create games, animations, and stories.  I have taught them how to use variables, loops, ifs, and lists using Scratch.  All of the boys and girls in each class love it when I come out and they use the skills to create projects throughout the year.  These students all think CS is cool and will have no problem taking Computer Science classes in the future as they are comfortable with the concepts and idea of writing programs.  I hope that I have successfully planted the seeds for a whole crop of future Computer Scientists.

This article discusses the same idea of starting students in Computer Science early and makes some of the same points.

NSA Recruiting

I like to talk to my students in Computer Science about career options and what and where they can do things later on life.
I had all of my classes take a look at the NSA recruiting page to see where NSA had needs.
http://www.nsa.gov/careers/
They were very impressed that Computer Science and Computer Engineering were in high demand.
Several of my students have Cyber Security career ambitions so this is very good information for them to have.