Big Ideas in Computer Science

I'm at a meeting where I was asked to determine the big ideas in computer science. Big ideas are defined as the things students will internalize and remember long after a course is over. An example in calculus is that I remember what a limit is, even though I don't remember how to calculate one.

Here are the four big ideas I thought of:

• Computer tools are designed and the design affects what they can do.
• Computers precisely execute instructions created by humans.
  
• This would include abstraction – what the instructions look like and how they are translated between layers.
  
• It includes algorithm creation and predicting what the computer will do given a set of instructions.
  
• It can include flow of instruction.
  
• It MAY include programming.
• Computers are used to solve many problems across many disciplines.
  • Ideally here students would design algorithms to solve various problems such as traffic flow, databases…
    
  • It would probably include the limit of computing – what problems are computers not good for solving and why.
• Computing has a role in society
  • Ethics,
    
  • Use of the tool,
    
  • History of computing and how society has changed based on computing technology…