THE REMARKER | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2013
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NEWS P R O G R A M M I N G
A bug in the system With no computer science classes offered in the Upper School this year, new Chief Technical Officer Paul DiVincenzo will face challenges when he arrives later in the fall. ERROR CODE 404 Working intently on a program in HTML, Sophomore Ward Rushton stares at his computer. The language is primarily used for web development purposes and was previously taught on campus. Computer science education is faltering as students lose interest.
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aul DiVincenzo has never bought a computer. Because of his decades of computer science experience, he doesn’t need to. Instead, DiVincenzo, who will be the school’s new chief technology officer, chooses to build his own desktops, continuing a tradition that began in 1990 when, at the age of 19, he received his first PC, a relatively primitive IBM PS/2. DiVincenzo will assume responsibility for all aspects of the school’s technology needs, including both the curriculum and the network, and intends to work closely with the headmaster and administration. Unlike DiVincenzo’s interest in computers, which blossomed at a young age, younger children of the current generation are far less competent technically than they should be according to Marc Scott, a British computer science educator and advocate. “It’s fantastic that everyone from the smallest child to the eldest grandparent can now use a computer with absolute minimal technical literacy, but it’s also a disaster,” Scott wrote in an article condemning the issue. “When things went wrong you had to dive in and get dirty to fix things. You learned about file systems and registry settings and drivers for your hardware. Not anymore.” And because of this, schools are increasingly bearing the burden of teaching
computer science. However, mandatory computer science education for Lions ends after eight grade, and no computer science courses were offered for the Upper School during this academic year, including the AP course. “Frankly, we only had about six students involved per year total in all the different levels,” Scott Gonzalez, provost and chair of the Committee on Academic Programs said. “Our school has a practice we’ve held for a long time that no class with fewer than eight students can be considered neither economically feasible nor supportable by our educational philosophy.” Middle School computer science instructor Kurt Tholking agrees that this lack of popularity is growing problem and tries to introduce programming concepts to his Middle School students by using tools such as “codeacademy.com.” “Our goal is to expose these young kids to coding in order to foster a desire to learn and explore more in those who are interested,” Tholking said. Tholking hopes that his effort will encourage more interest in programming in the Upper School, possibly leading to offering the AP computer science class again. The course, which focuses on the programming language Java, was canceled following the departure of instructor Robert Kenyon and the low interest among the
student body. “I don’t believe there is necessarily a place for teaching the hardware-based side of computing in the curriculum but I’m glad we’re taking steps to incorporate more programming at younger ages,” Tholking said. “Just like learning a foreign language, it’s much better to introduce kids to these ideas early.” owever, despite the waning interest in formal Upper School computer science courses, groups such as the Coding Club and Robotics Team are effective ways to promote technological literacy according to alumnus Spencer Williams ’12, a computer engineering student currently attending Northwestern University. “Not only did robotics introduce me to programming and circuit design, it helped me develop the thought process necessary for computer engineering,” he said. “I decided that in college I wanted to combine both the assembly and computing aspects of engineering.” As part of his new position, DiVincenzo plans to review and assess the computer science curriculum at 10600 Preston Road, emphasizing the need to prepare generations of boys for a technologically-immersed world. “I find computer science to be an extremely important aspect of everyone’s education,” he said. “Technology is here, it’s all around us, and it’s needed for every
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profession.” DiVincenzo will work closely with Head of the Computer Science Department Dean Baird to determine curriculum and course requirements. “If [DiVincenzo] says we must move in a certain direction, especially if we don’t have specific course offerings in computer science, then it will be up to Mr. Baird to reinstate those classes,” Gonzalez said. “Once again, though, it’s going to come down to what student interest is driving.” Senior Victor Zhou, iOS developer and founder of the Coding Club, believes that interest in the computer sciences is very important for future collegiate and career success. “As our world gets more and more technologically sophisticated, knowing how to understand and produce code as well as understanding how the hardware behind all of this stuff works is becoming more and more important,” Zhou said. “Programming will be the language of the future. If you aren’t fluent, you’re going to be left behind.”
Computer science students Year 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014
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17 8 14 0
A BUG IN THE SYSTEM story by Vikram Pattabi, news editor | photo illustration by Andrew Gatherer, head photographer
Upper School JETS team wins national engineering contest
IN THE LEAD The eight-man team entered the national competition seeded in first place, one of the few teams to make a perfect score at the regional event. Senior team member Alexander Muñoz and Victor Zhou and team sponsor Ken Owens cheer holding the competition trophy.
Eight Marksmen bring first ever crown home from Orlando meet By Cameron Clark staff writer It only took them one try. They sat among 5,000 people, anxiously awaiting what everyone else wanted to hear. The results. They got what they wanted to hear. From June 30 to July 1 in Orlando, the school’s junior/senior engineering team attended its first ever Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) best in nation competition and won first place. The team, sponsored by chemistry instructor Ken Owens ’89, was comprised of members of the Class of 2013 and current seniors who competed in three different events: a written essay on an assigned topic, an on-site problem solving competition and an event where two team members give a four minute presentation answering a random question after doing 15 minutes of research. Team members included senior and captain Victor Zhou, senior Alexander Muñoz,
Milan Savani ’13, James Rowan ’13, Rachit Mohan ’13, Aarav Chavda ’13, Will Chang ’13 and Chandler Burke ’13. The team came in a close second in the presentation and the essay, but they won the on-site problem solving competition by a wide margin, which gave them the edge and the win. “(Winning) was a surprise,” Owens said. “We certainly went in in a good position. We did really well on the first competition, which was the one we do here, and then the scores get evaluated at the local level, the state level and the national level, and we were ahead in all of those places. We had a strong team.” Zhou said the team was still excited to win despite having some big expectations go-
ing in. “We had the regional level competition, and we were actually seeded first in the nation, so we were the favorites to win,” Zhou said. Both Zhou and Owens believe the team has a good shot at back to back victories in the competition next summer. “There’s always a shot at a repeat,” Owens said. “It was a strong team, and no joke, we’ve got Alex Muñoz and Victor Zhou going back and competing again this year, and they’ve been through it once, so we’ll be able to take anybody else on the team with them if we get invited back again. So, if we go again, with the two vets on the team, we’ll have a good shot at it.”
Sophomore first to enroll in Global Online Academy By Philip Montgomery staff writer Instead of walking into a classroom to take a class like every other student here, sophomore Bill Dannenmaier opens his laptop, logs on and begins his class in microeconomics from the Global Online Academy (GOA). “I’m going to take microeconomics during the fall and game theory during the spring,” Dannenmaier said. “I enjoy investing so the thought of economics and helping me invest is what made me join the class. “ Students taking a GOA course can also access material for their class at any time through the Internet instead of having to wait until class time to get an assignment. Provost and Dean of Campus Scott Gonzalez is not worried about the quality of teaching even though most teachers have never interacted with the school. “The schools that are part of [GOA] are schools very similar to who we are as far as institutions are concerned,” Gonzalez said. Gonzalez believes that, as the school continues its relationship with GOA, more students will enroll and use it as a valuable learning tool.