Computer Science Unplugged Seminar for Educators

• Speaker: Dr. Tim Bell, University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand
• Location: CH430
• Date: Wednesday, June 27
• Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Seminar Abstract

Computer Science Unplugged is a project that teaches principles of computer
science without using computers. It can be used in conjunction with computer
courses, in classrooms, and in situations where access to computers is
limited. This seminar describes activities that educators can use to
demonstrate principles of computer science to young school children in a
variety of settings. These activities are "unplugged" --- no computers are
required. In this first seminar at UAB, we will describe how "Unplugged"
material can be used for school outreach. The presentation will also discuss
some evaluation and lessons learned over the years. Thanks to support from
Google, a free copy of the book is available at http://csunplugged.org/

Speaker Biography

Dr. Tim Bell is an Associate Professor in the department of Computer Science
and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch,
New Zealand. His current research interests include Computers and Music,
Public Understanding of (Computer) Science, and educational applications of
podcasting. He received the Science Communicator Award from the NZ
Association of Scientists in 1999, and an inaugural New Zealand Tertiary
Teaching Excellence Award in 2002. He has appeared with his "Computer
Science Unplugged" show at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, the
Dunedin International Science Festival, and the Australian Science Festival.
He is also a qualified musician, and performs regularly on instruments that
have black-and-white keyboards. He is co-author of the books "Text
Compression" and "Managing Gigabytes".

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