The proposal presents 100P, an innovative guided discovery curriculum. In the 100P program, students are freed from the classroom; students instead work on 100 concept- and research-related problems throughout their undergraduate careers. The 100 problems guide the students to discover the fundamental knowledge and skills required of a graduate of the degree program. Each student is free to create an individualized mode of learning and discovery. The curriculum fosters deep learning among students and challenges students' intellectual growth. The 100P program encourages students to be agile learners who can draw on a number of resources as needed, to be resilient learners who understand that progress can come from failure, and to be lifelong learners who are better trained for the challenges of globalization. The structure of the classroom is replaced by a new structure: nine problems and an oral exam. This structure repeats throughout a student's career. So not only is 100P a rigorous curriculum, it is a caring curriculum with its emphasis on both faculty and peer mentoring.
Intellectual Merit: 100P provides an alternate paradigm for obtaining a baccalaureate degree. The new curriculum integrates some of the best ideas from educational research in building an educational environment that promotes student-centered learning, allows for early immersion into both the discipline and undergraduate research, and yields agile, resourceful, and resilient learners. The development of the program not only provides an innovative education program and techniques to enhance student success, but also insights into learning diversity and teaching in CS.
Broader Impact: This proposal offers a new paradigm for educating students in CS and, potentially, other STEM disciplines. 100P encourages students to reach their potential more readily than the regular classroom format. The 100P program helps all students strive for excellence and become more self-motivated and self-confident while in a supportive environment. The project disseminates materials that have been vetted by experts in the fields of CS education. These materials, the policies and procedures for the 100P program, detailed concept guides for the major courses, an institutionalization plan, and an assessment instrument for the 100P program facilitate the adoption of 100P by other departments. 100P also has potential economic impact in that it addresses the aspiration of a broadly educated engineer set forth in The Engineer of 2020.
