Introducing computer science in an integrated science course

Abstract

This paper describes our implementation and experience of incorporating computer science concepts into a team-taught, first-year interdisciplinary course for prospective science ma-jors at the University of Richmond. The course integrates essential concepts from each offive STEM disciplines: biol-ogy, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics. Including computer science in this course faces three primary challenges: few of the students have any CS background; the time devoted to CS instruction is reduced compared to a traditional introductory CS course; and the spirit of the course requires the CS material to be highly integrated with the other disciplines. Here we discuss our experience from three-plus years of offering the course and its impact on the major/minor pool of students in our own discipline. Copyright © 2013 ACM.