Springfield High looks at computers in-depth

In a Monday morning class at Montgomery County's Springfield High School, Tammy Pirmann set out to show her students that one plus one doesn't always equal two.

Pirmann was introducing the ninth graders in her "Computer Science 9" course to the binary number system, made up of just zeroes and ones - the coding system used by computers.

As Pirmann wrote decimal-system numbers on a whiteboard, her students shuffled around 3-by-5 cards with dots on them, converting them into binary. (Two in binary is "10.")

Computers are a constant presence in the lives of most students, but few know about their inner workings, or how a network functions, and many have not thought much about the ethical dilemmas that the Web world has wrought.

That's where Pirmann's course, required for all ninth graders, comes in.

The Springfield Township district is the first in Pennsylvania to mandate that students take a computer science course as a graduation requirement, Pirmann said.

"It takes the approach [that] this is what you need to know to live in the 21st century."

School Board President Mal Gran said he saw the course as "one that would provide tremendous opportunities for kids."

The binary numbers lesson, part of a unit on problem solving, is one example.

"There are so many thinking skills involved that have such a wider application than simply computer science," Gran said. "This is the kind of thinking I want all of our teachers to try and bring out of our kids."

Before this year, Springfield had required students to take a course in information technology. "It was essentially a class in [how to use] Microsoft Office" applications, Pirmann said, something they now come to school knowing.

At Pirmann's urging, the district switched to a course modeled on one designed by the Computer Science Teachers Association, a national group. Pirmann heads a regional chapter.

The course combines factual information about computers with units on logical thinking and problem solving, and includes an introduction to programming and Web design. Another thread throughout: the ethics of computer use, including privacy issues and hacking.

In one class, for example, Pirmann compared trying to access someone's computer files without permission to "walking down the street, trying to open the door to every house."

"At what point do you cross the line" of legality? she asked her students.

"When you open the door and go in," one answered.

Freshman Allie Leber said that requiring computer science "makes sense - technology is such a big part of our lives." She's more interested in music and art than in computer science, Leber said, but "in daily life, I want to be able to solve problems on my own and not have people solve them for me."

Said classmate Sam Preine: "Everyone knows how to use computers, but they don't know how they work."

Computer science is like other science courses taught to students who may not go into that field, he said. "They're all useful in your future. And computer science can be used in many jobs."

Government projections show that in the next 10 years, more than 1.5 million high-wage technology jobs will be created in the United States, making it one of the fastest-growing employment areas. But computer science offerings lag far behind other high school sciences.

A 2009 survey by the Computer Science Teachers Association showed a decline in the number of schools offering Advanced Placement computer science courses and introductory courses. Some in the field call the situation a "crisis."

In 2009, about 16,100 students took the main computer science AP test nationwide, putting it in the same general range as subjects like studio art, Latin, and music theory; 100,500 took AP chemistry, and 155,600 took AP biology. In Pennsylvania, 533 students took the 2009 AP computer test.

Girls made up less than 20 percent of the students taking the computer test nationwide.

Pirmann said that, of the 12 students taking AP computer science out of 625 students at Springfield High last year, five were girls, and four plan to go on in the field.

Nina Huenke, an 11th grader, is an example of what can happen when more students are introduced to the subject.

Huenke took Web applications development last year, "just to fill my schedule," she said. "Before I took my first . . . class, I hadn't had much exposure to computers or done that much with them, other than creating PowerPoints and Word documents, or getting on Facebook.

"It was really fun," Huenke said. "I got to create a bunch of different websites."

This year, Huenke is one of the student Web masters running the high school's Internet site. She is also helping her father design a new website for his business. She is thinking about majoring in computer science at college.

"It's a really good field to work in, and I love it. What could be better?" she said.