This paper presents a thorough evaluation of CS for Scientists, a CS 1 course designed to provide future scientists with an overview of the discipline. The course takes a breadth-first approach that leverages its students' interest and experience in science, mathematics, and engineering. In contrast to many other styles of CS 1, this course does not presume that its students will study more computer science, but it does seek to prepare them should they choose to. We summarize the past year's worth of assessments of student learning, retention, and affect -with particular attention paid to women's voices. Where possible, we contrast these student measures with those from a traditional, imperative-first CS1 that this new course replaced. The data thus far suggest that CS for Scientists significantly improves students' understanding of CS, its applications, and practice.
This paper describes an introductory CS course designed to provide future scientists with a one-semester overview of the discipline. The course takes a breadth-first approach that leverages its students' interest and experience in science, mathematics, and engineering. In contrast to many other styles of CS 1, this course does not presume that its students will study more computer science, but it does seek to prepare them should they choose to do so. In addition to describing the curriculum and resources, we summarize our preliminary assessments of this course and a comparison with the more traditional, imperative-first introduction it replaced. The data thus far suggest that this CS for Scientists course improves our students' understanding of CS, its applications, and practice.
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