John Watson ’12
Staff Writer
The rumors about the return of a computer science department to staple are not just rumors, as two new computer science classes two new classes are Intro to Programming and Intro to Web Programming will be arriving next year.
The computer department was removed from the school curriculum do to a lack of students who wanted to take the course.
The computer department was one of several areas of the school hit hard by the 2009 depression.
Next year the reengineered computer department will pilot several new computer classes. The new department was developed largely by the science department, and the teacher Nathaniel Dewey. “I worked with the administration for what the computer department will look like in the future” says Dewey. Though the classes are still awaiting board of education approval, many of the teachers involved are confident in it going through, and then it becomes a matter of budgets.
The computer department is working on a multi-year plan that based on the popularity of the subject. Eric Lubin’11, part of the Staples Robotics team, says “I’m looking forward to it; I enjoy programming and plan on taking at least one of the classes.” Next year there will only be two new computer classes, though if those two classes get a lot of students there will be two more classes added on the following year. “We want to see it grow, it has the potential to be a big class here at staples” says Science Department Head, Dr. Scheetz.
. The only prerequisite for Intro to Programming is algebra 1, with Intro to Web will have intro to programming as a prerequisite. Both classes will be semester courses. At least for the next year, they will be aimed mostly on sophomores or older.
Intro to Programming will teach the basics of creating programs in order to solve any problem on the computer. Intro to Web Programming will teach students how to create data-driven web sources, an example of which is the popular source Wikipedia.
There has been no planning as of yet to bring back robotics and the other computer science classes removed last year. The new computer science classes “teach useful skills for general computer knowledge and are recommended to everyone’ says Dewey.
If Intro to Programming and Intro to Web Programming get enough students to sign up, two more follow-up classes will enter in next year. The courses will count either as a Science credit or a practical arts credit.
