Hi - I’m Chris

Overview

2008(?) - I took AP Computer Science A

• I just took it for the AP credit
• I had no programming experience before this
• I loved it!

2009 : Started my CS Major at UVA

• I loved UVA

2010 : First internship - Java

2012 : Second internship - Databases at NASA

2013 : Graduated UVA, started my first job

2013 : My actual first job

2021 : Masters Degree - Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech

2022 : Started teaching at Wakefield

2024 : Today

I’m still learning

Classes I took this summer:

• Philosophy and Foundations of Education
• Risk Management for STEM classrooms
• Academic Literacy for STEM classrooms
• Assessments of and for Learning
• Dynamic Programming, Greedy Algorithms
• Approximation and Linear Programming
• Advanced Data Structures and Quantum Algorithms

CS Courses in APS

Digital Citizenship

• Just like physical citizenship - students need instruction to understand their rights and responsibilities when they use technology.
• Students need to understand and engage successfully and thoughtfully with technology.
• Technology is always evolving. We can’t just prepare students to use today’s technology, we need to prepare them with the skills that they can bring to all future technologies.

Creativity

• In my previous career, I observed that the most successful engineers are those who can come up with creative solutions to problems
• Teaching creativity involves promoting self-efficacy, critical thinking, and ability to make connections across disciplines.

Self-efficacy - a TLTC Goal

• Transforming Learning for the Third Century (TLTC) - University of Michigan’s “Engaged Learning Goals”
• Five key 21st century skills, including:
• “Self-Agency and the Ability to Innovate and Take Risks”

Creativity study

Intuition

• Computer Science = The study of problem solving
• Fundamental skills include breaking problems down, estimation

Critical Literacy

• Understand why so much misinformation exists online
• Logical fallacies
• Question author intent

Critical Literacy

Fluency

• Students need to understand how and why things work, not just regurgitate formulas
• “Knowing a thousand formulas is not the same as knowing mathematics”

Fluency - Activities that promote conceptual understanding

Fluency - My Own Projects

Fluency - Fermi Problems

Estimation skills - Fermi Problems

Fluency - Fermi Problems

Speaking & Teamwork

Speaking - Class debates

• Good opportunity to tie in ethics and digital citizenship
• Some of my favorite topics:
  • Should the government ban TikTok?
  • Supreme Court case - Gonzales v Google
  • 2015 Apple v FBI case about iPhone encryption

Speaking - Shark Tank

References

• Di Giorgio, S. (2022). Misinformation in the time of COVID: Fighting the spread of fake news. Journal of Mental Health, 31(3), 447–449. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2022.2069729
• Efthimiou, C. J., & Llewellyn, R. A. (2007). Cinema, Fermi problems and general education. Physics Education, 42(3), 253–261. https://doi.org/10.1088/0031-9120/42/3/003
• Mackay, I., Miller, T., & Benson, G. (2022). Enhancing student communication skills via debating engineering ethics. Towards a New Future in Engineering Education, New Scenarios That European Alliances of Tech Universities Open Up. https://doi.org/10.5821/conference-9788412322262.1207
• Pachnowski, L. M., Plaster, K. B., Maguth, B. M., & Makki, N. (2023). From think tank to Shark Tank: Engineer to entrepreneur. Integrated Science, 141–163. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17816-0_7
• Wahl, K. (2021). Knowing a thousand formulas is not the same as knowing mathematics (dissertation). Retrieved 2024, from https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/handle/2077/69508/gupea_2077_69508_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.