T.J. Hickey
We describe an approach to introducing non-science majors to programming
and computation
in part by teaching them applets, servlets, and groupware applications. The course
uses a dialect of didactic Scheme that is implemented in, and tightly
integrated with, Java. The declarative nature
of our approach allows non-science majors with no programming
background to develop surprisingly
complex web applications in about half a semester.
This level of programming provides
a context for a deeper understanding of computation than is usually
feasible in a Computer Literacy course.