This grant is enabling the university to equip a modern computer classroom/lab for the introductory computer science courses, CS1 and CS2. The goals of the laboratory facility are to encourage students to interact with faculty, promote the team approach to problem solving, and provide an environment in which students learn to tackle problems with confidence. A group-oriented Design-Implementation-Discover (DID) approach to laboratory assignments is being used in the upper-division courses. The success of this approach relies heavily on a closed lab in which students can work together with instructor supervision. These upper-division classes are held in a small lab. The university is extending the collaborative DID approach to introductory courses. The project provides all students, majors and nonmajors, with the fundamental skills needed to use the computer as a problem-solving tool.
