The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Carolina will offer in summer 2012 an institute in Computer Science for prospective teachers of AP* Computer Science A.

The plan is for the on-campus part of the institute to be held from 18 June through 22 June 2012. Some preparatory work will be required in the two weeks prior to the week on campus, and some work will be submitted in the week following the week on campus.

This course will qualify for USC graduate credit from the College of Education as EDSE 773 provided that the appropriate (and independent) process, including payment of the application fee, is done with the Graduate School of the University of South Carolina. Potential institute participants must apply on their own to the Graduate School, pay application fees, submit credentials, etc., in order to obtain the graduate credit for this course.

Funding from the state Department of Education will cover the USC tuition contract for EDSE 773 from the College of Education as well as the instructional materials for the course (the AP “bundle”). Participants will be expected to pay a $150 fee for this institute. Participants must pay for their own housing and meals during the week on campus, although we expect to be able to arrange for on-campus housing for out-of-town participants. These, together with the USC graduate application fee (if necessary, for those not already enrolled as USC graduate students), should be the only out-of-pocket expenses for participants.

The programming language used in AP CS is Java. The USC Department of Computer Science and Engineering uses Eclipse as the development environment, although it is possible that a different development environment will be chosen for this institute. Java is available as a free download by itself, or can be obtained bundled in with the free download of Eclipse . If a different development environment will be used, it will also be a free download.

Institute participants are expected to have some familiarity with computer programming; it is not possible to compress all the needed Java instruction and the pedagogical instruction into the short time allowed. The preliminary work will involve download and testing of simple Java programs, and participants will need to have access to computers prior to and after the week on campus at USC. Instruction at USC will take place in a computer lab, but the use of personal laptops is also possible. Some support in getting downloads installed will be available prior to the week on campus.

Further information can be obtained from contacting Duncan Buell, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, contact information found at Dr. Buell’s home page.

Those teachers who are not already USC graduate students should contact the USC College of Education and the USC Graduate School for information about applying for admission as a graduate student to USC; this status will be necessary to obtain credit for EDSE 773.

To register, please fill out RegistrationForm.

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